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CROWELL'S TRAVEL BOOKS 

RAMBLES IN SPAIN. By John D. Fitz- 
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A MEXICAN JOURNEY. By E. H. Blich- 
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THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA. By H. W. 
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See page 125. 
'THE SOLDIER'S LEAP" — GORGE IN THE ANDES, ACROSS WHICH ONE 
OF OHIGGINSS CAVALRY LEAPED HIS HORSE TO ESCAPE 
THE ROYALISTS. 



THROUGH 
SOUTH AMERICA 



BY 
HARRY WESTON YAN DYKE 



WITH INTRODUCTION BY 

JOHN BARRETT 

DIRECTOR-GENERAL OF THE FAN AMERICAN UNION 



NEW YORK 
THOMAS Y. CROWELL COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS 



l-zzot 
■Vzf 



Copyright, 1912. 
BY THOMAS Y. CROWELL COMPANY. 



Published October, 1919. 



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©CI.A32825S 



TO 
MY FRIEND 

JOHN BARRETT 

IN TOKEN OF MY ESTEEM AND MY APPRECIATION OF 
HIS MANY KINDNESSES 



INTRODUCTION 

By Hon. John Barrett, Director-General op 
the Pan American Union and formerly 
United States Minister to Argentina, Pana- 
ma, and Colombia 

1HAVE real pleasure in complying with 
the suggestion that I should write an in- 
troduction to this interesting and instruc- 
tive work by Mr. Harry Weston Van Dyke. 
As it was through me that he was led to make 
his studies and investigations which resulted 
in the preparing of this book, I naturally find 
much gratification in the success with which 
he has handled the responsibility. No one can 
read his travel story of South America with- 
out being impressed with the importance of 
these countries, the enjoyment and value of 
visiting them, and the advantage of the devel- 
opment of closer relations between all of them 
and the United States. 

As the executive officer of the Pan Amer- 
ican Union, an international organization 

vii 



INTRODUCTION 

maintained in Washington by all the Ameri- 
can republics, twenty-one in number, includ- 
ing the United States, for the advancement of 
commerce, friendship, and peace among them 
all, it is my lot to realize, possibly better than 
any one else, the remarkable growth of inter- 
est which is being manifested now, not only 
throughout the United States but in all parts 
of the world, in the countries of the southern 
portions of the American continent commonly 
classed as Latin America. 

When the Pan American Union was re- 
organized about five years ago, and it be- 
gan an active propaganda for making the 
twenty Latin American republics better 
known in the United States, and correspond- 
ingly, the United States • better known 
among them, there was little cause for en- 
couragement. The average newspaper editor, 
the man in public life, the manufacturer, 
the exporter, the importer, the traveler, and 
the student seemed to be largely absorbed 
in studying and watching the development of 
our commercial relations with Europe and 
the Orient, and not with Latin America. The 
persistent and continued effort, however, of 
the Pan American Union in educating the 

viii 



INTRODUCTION 

world to the importance of the Latin Amer- 
ican countries and to an appreciation of the 
commercial opportunities and moral respon- 
sibilities of the United States in its relations 
with them, has now resulted in a complete 
change of conditions which is indeed gratify- 
ing. To-day the manufacturers and mer- 
chants in all parts of the world, the editors of 
American and European and even Asiatic 
newspapers, special writers on foreign sub- 
jects, lecturers, members of Congress, pro- 
fessors and students in universities and col- 
leges, librarians, professional and amateur 
travelers are corresponding with the Pan 
American Union or visiting its headquarters 
in order to gain accurate information about 
the Latin American republics. 

As an illustration of this growth of in- 
terest a few comparisons can be made. Five 
years ago the total number of printed re- 
ports, pamphlets, and other publications 
distributed by the Pan American Union was 
approximately one hundred thousand. This 
year, the total will approximate nearly one 
million. None of these have been sent 
broadcast in a careless way. Five years 
ago there was little or no demand for 



INTRODUCTION 

the "Monthly Bulletin" of the Pan Amer- 
ican Union; now the demand for it is greater 
than can be supplied. Then it was an unin- 
teresting public document; to-day it is an 
attractive and instructive illustrated maga- 
zine, descriptive of the progress and develop- 
ment of the American nations. Five years 
ago the Pan American Union was housed in 
a small building, used formerly as a private 
dwelling, on the corner of Lafayette Square 
and Pennsylvania Avenue; to-day it occupies 
a building which a great French architect has 
described as combining beauty and utility 
better than any other public building of its 
cost in the world. 

The library of the Pan American Union, 
which is a practical collection of books useful 
to all persons who wish to study those coun- 
tries, has been increased from twelve thousand 
to twenty-three thousand volumes, while its 
collection of photographs has grown from 
one thousand to eleven thousand. 

During this same period the foreign com- 
merce of Latin America has grown from 
one billion seven hundred million dollars 
($1,700,000,000) to two billion three hundred 
million dollars ($2,300,000,000). Of this, the 



INTRODUCTION 

share of the United States has increased from 
less than five hundred million dollars ($500- 
000,000) to nearly seven hundred million dol- 
lars ($700,000,000). 

The total annual contributions of all the 
American republics, including the United 
States, for the maintenance of the Pan Amer- 
ican Union in 1906 was $54,000; now the to- 
tal of their quotas for support approximates 
$125,000. 

All these facts I mention, not to call atten- 
tion to the Pan American Union especially, 
but to emphasize with actual truth the evi- 
dences of the growth of interest throughout 
the world in the countries which are described 
in part by Mr. Van Dyke in this practical 
volume. If its reading stimulates further in- 
terest in them, the Pan American Union will 
be only too glad to furnish any information 
in its power. 

While this book will perhaps be most ap- 
preciated by persons who are contemplating 
a visit to Latin America, it should be read by 
all those who wish to know more of what the 
American nations aside from the United 
States are doing. What is their interesting 
history, what are their resources, what are 

xi 



INTRODUCTION 

the characteristics of their peoples, what is 
the progress being made by them in national 
and municipal government, in education, and 
in solving social and economic problems? 
Most of the people of the United States and 
even of Europe have been so absorbed in their 
own histories, development, and general prog- 
ress that they have given little attention to 
the twenty republics of southern America. 
After reading Mr. Van Dyke's story they 
cannot fail to appreciate that there are other 
important nations and peoples in the world 
than those of northern America, Europe, 
and Asia. 

Possibly a few general facts may be men- 
tioned here which will enable the reader bet- 
ter to appreciate what follows in the chapters 
of this book. It must be remembered that the 
twenty republics lying south of the United 
States in the Western Hemisphere occupy an 
area of nine million square miles. This is 
three times greater than the connected area 
of the United States. Their total population 
now exceeds seventy millions. This is seven- 
ninths of the total population of the United 
States. Their foreign trade — and commerce 
is often called the life blood of nations — now 

xii 



INTRODUCTION 

exceeds two billion three hundred million dol- 
lars ($2,300,000,000) a year, which in turn 
represents an increase of nearly one billion 
dollars ($1,000,000,000) during the last ten 
years. Nearly all of these countries secured 
their independence under the leadership of 
generals and patriots who were inspired by 
the example of George Washington. Nearly 
all of them have written their constitutions 
with the constitution of the United States as 
their example. All of them to-day are watch- 
ing the United States in its efforts to solve its 
endless variety of social and economic prob- 
lems, and they will profit by the example 
which the United States sets them. 

They are not to be classed as lands of revo- 
lution, because two-thirds of all Latin Amer- 
ica has known practically no revolution dur- 
ing the last fifteen or twenty years. The 
revolutions which occurred should possibly be 
called evolutions, and are efforts of their peo- 
ples, even though sometimes crude, to im- 
prove their permanent conditions of prosper- 
ity and progress. They are not by any 
means solely "tropical lands," as is often sup- 
posed or as may be judged from a glance at 
the map. The great southern section of 

xiii 



INTRODUCTION 

South America, including southern Brazil, 
Uruguay, Argentina, Chile, and a large sec- 
tion of Bolivia, are in the South Temperate 
Zone, where they have climatic conditions cor- 
responding to those of the United States. 
The countries, moreover, which are actually 
under or near the equator have a mingling of 
high lands with low lands which means much 
for their future development. There are high 
plateaux ranging from three thousand to 
twelve thousand feet above the sea, covering 
oftentimes individual areas as large as that of 
Connecticut or Massachusetts, where the cli- 
mate the year round is like that of New Eng- 
land in June or September and where the 
white man can live in corresponding climatic 
comfort. 

Although, because of the slight seasonal 
changes, the average temperature of the low- 
lying lands of the tropical sections is some- 
what trying to the resident of northern bring- 
ing up, yet under the influence of modern 
methods of sanitation and practical meth- 
ods of living, they are being transformed 
into healthful sections of growing population, 
commerce, and influence. The example which 
the United States has set at Panama, and 

xiv 



INTRODUCTION 

the demonstration which this government is 
giving there of the possibility of white men 
thriving in the tropics, is having its influence 
throughout the tropical belt of our sister re- 
publics and great changes are resulting. 

The approaching completion and opening 
of the Panama Canal gives a special interest 
to this work of Mr. Van Dyke's. Only the 
person who has thoroughly studied what the 
Panama Canal means, its effect not only upon 
the commerce of the world but upon the com- 
merce and influence of the United States, and 
what it will do for the Latin American 
countries, as well as for the United States, can 
appreciate fully how important to the future 
of the relations of North and South America 
is the completion of this mighty waterway. 
Its opening should be followed not only by 
a great development of the export trade of 
the United States to those countries but of 
their export trade to this country. It should 
cause a remarkable increase in the travel be- 
tween North and South America. There is 
no better influence for commerce and friend- 
ship than that of mutual acquaintance of peo- 
ples of different countries. When the Canal 
's completed there should be a great increase 

XV 



INTRODUCTION 

in the number of North Americans going to 
South America and of South Americans com- 
ing to the North. 

When the shipping of the world goes 
through the Canal, it will have direct access 
to a remarkable coast line which heretofore 
has been so isolated that it could only be 
reached from the eastern part of the United 
States and the western part of Europe by 
the long journey around South America. The 
coast line which is made immediately acces- 
sible by the Canal reaches for eight thousand 
miles from the California-Mexican line south 
to Cape Horn, three thousand miles from 
Panama northwest to San Diego in Califor- 
nia and five thousand miles south from Pan- 
ama to Punta Arenas. This coast, without 
the Canal and in its isolated position, con- 
ducts now an average foreign commerce val- 
ued at four hundred million dollars ($400,- 
000,000). With the opening of the Canal 
this should be doubled or trebled in the next 
ten years. It is a safe prediction that the 
Panama Canal will have the same influence 
upon the western shore, comprising the fol- 
lowing countries: Mexico, Salvador, Nica- 
ragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Ecua- 

xvi 



INTRODUCTION 

dor, Peru, Bolivia, and Chile, which the con- 
struction of the transcontinental railways had 
upon the Pacific coast of the United States. 
The fact that their population and their com- 
mercial and industrial development to-day is 
somewhat limited is no argument against 
their possibilities in the future. There was a 
time when the best experts and judges in 
the public and official life of the United States 
declared that the Pacific coast of the United 
States was not only of little value but never 
would be of great consequence. There were, 
however, some wise men like Seward who 
recognized the mighty potentialities of our 
Pacific coasts and of the Pacific seas. There 
is every reason to believe that western or 
Pacific Latin America, in view of its varie- 
ties of resources and climate, will, under the 
influence of the Panama Canal, experience a 
development and progress that will astonish 
the world. 

In conclusion, a word can be added of per- 
sonal appreciation of our sister republics 
which I believe will be shared by all those 
who read this book and later visit Latin 
America and study carefully its possibilities 
and potentialities. It was my privilege, be- 

xvii 



INTRODUCTION 

fore being elected by the vote of all these 
countries to the position of Director-General 
of the Pan American Union five years ago, 
to have served as Minister of the United 
States in such representative countries of 
South America as Argentina, Panama, and 
Colombia. My association with the officials 
and the rank and file of the peoples of these 
countries, and my travels both in a public 
and private capacity throughout the Latin 
American countries, have developed in me a 
regard for them that approaches real affec- 
tion. The more I have learned and seen of 
them, the more I have admired them. They 
have their faults and weaknesses, as have the 
government and the people of the United 
States; but they have a great many virtues 
and numerous favorable features which are 
too often overlooked by the critics who have 
not studied Latin America from a sympa- 
thetic standpoint. 

If we of the United States will remem- 
ber that they are our sister republics, that 
they gained their independence under our 
example, that they have written their con- 
stitutions upon that of the United States, 
and that they will learn to love or hate us ac- 
xviii 



INTRODUCTION 

cording as our attitude is that of sympathy 
and love or of selfishness and material con- 
cern, we shall in turn gain their confidence 
and sympathy and they will join with us in 
that spirit of Pan American unity and of 
solidarity which will make the Western Hemi- 
sphere the world's leader in civilization, in 
business, and in enduring friendship among 

all nations. T t> 

John Barrett. 

Washington, June 1, 1912. 



xix 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I. Historical Sketch 1 

II. Brazil 133 

III. Argentina . 190 

IV. Uruguay 228 

V. Paraguay 239 

VI. Bolivia 257 

VII. Chile 275 

VIII. Peru 314 

IX. Ecuador 352 

X. Colombia 375 

XI. Venezuela 400 

XII. The Guianas 424 

Bibliography 429 

Index 433 



xxi 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

' "The Soldier's Leap" Frontispiece 

OPPOSITE PAGE 

Map of South America 1 

^Francisco Pizarro 38 

Inca Burial Tower near Lake Titicaca ... 56 
Cloisters of Dominican Monastery, Cuzco ... 56 
Cathedral at Lima, built by Pizarro .... 76 
- Pizarro's Palace, Lima — Now the Government 

Building 90 

' San Martin's Passage of the Andes 126 

•Statue of Bolivar, in Lima 132 

•The City of Bahia 156 

• Botafogo Bay, Rio Harbor . . between 162 and 163 
Bay and City of Rio de Janeiro . . . .' . 166 
Avenue of Royal Palms, Rio Botanical Gardens 170 

Avenida Central, Rio de Janeiro 170 

Coffee Plantation, Brazil 184 

Colon Theater, Buenos Aires 204 

Federal Capitol, Buenos Aires 204 

'Jockey Club's Grand Stand at Race Track . .210 

Prize Winners from "the Camp" 216 

xxiii 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

OPPOSITE PAGE 

The Uspallata Pass 222 

Iguazu Falls 226 

Solis Theater, Montevideo 232 

Cagancha Plaza, Montevideo 232 

Government Palace, Asuncion 242 

View of Asuncion and River Paraguay . . . 242 

Shrine of Our Lady of Capacabana .... 266 

Town and Mountain of Potosi, Bolivia .... 266 

Church of the Conservidas, La Paz 272 

Old Spanish Residence, La Paz 272 

Punta Arenas 312 

Plaza Mayor, Lima 326 

Scene on the Oroya Railway 330 

Church of La Merced, Lima 350 

Street Scene in Guayaquil 362 

Condor of the Andes 362 

Room in Old Palace at Quito 374 

Overlooking Bogota 386 

A Posada or Country Inn 392 

Battlemented Wall, Cartagena 392 

View of Maracaibo 404 

A Coffee Plantation, Venezuela 414 



XXIV 



70 jjPaumim & «0 
~X CARIBBEAN \ \^ S E A 

centra; ; \ 4S, £ 

J° X-Colonl 




Through South America 
i 

HISTORICAL SKETCH 



A LITTLE more than four hundred 
years ago, when Europe was emer- 
ging from the darkness of the Middle 
Ages into the era of printed books, when 
the Field of the Cloth of Gold had impressed 
the official stamp of culture on her civiliza- 
tion, when gunpowder was changing the as- 
pect of war — in an age that produced such 
intellects as those of Machiavelli, Copernicus, 
Lorenzo the Magnificent, Cardinal Wolsey, 
and John Werner — wise men were still 
groping blindly for knowledge about the 
world in which they lived that is regarded as 
elementary by the school children of our day. 
What was its shape? What lay beyond the 
western horizon of the Atlantic, the vast and 
stormy Mare Tenebrosum of fabled terror 

1 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

to mariners? What was south of the African 
countries bordering the Mediterranean? How 
far east did Asia extend? No one knew. 

In the year 150 a.d., the learned Alexan- 
drian Claudius Ptolemy had made a map of 
Europe and of those parts of Asia and Af- 
rica which were then known, or supposed to 
exist; and on that map, for the first time in 
history, the world was represented as a sphere 
— though a stationary one. Therefore, spec- 
ulated those who thought about it at all, as- 
suming Ptolemy's theory to be correct, how 
could a mariner, even were he successful in 
navigating his vessel down the awful decliv- 
ity on one side of the globe, hope to make it 
climb up again on the other? How could he 
cross the equator, which Aristotle and Pliny 
had declared was an uninhabitable zone, so 
torrid that the earth around was burnt up as 
with fire and only marine salamanders, if 
such monsters existed, could live in the super- 
heated waters? And, even if the equator 
were passable, how could the frightful abysses 
into which the ocean was supposed to dis- 
charge itself at the pole be escaped? 

Some time in the sixth century a monk 
named Cosmas had attempted to answer 



HISTORICAL SKETCH 

these questions by means of a theory evolved 
from a study of the Bible and more consistent 
with its descriptions and metaphors. In the 
map he made, the world was represented as a 
level rectangle, its sides composed of blue 
walls, supporting a dome that separated the 
mortal domain from the Paradise where dwelt 
the Creator and his angels; and, fanciful as 
was this cosmos of Cosmas' devising, his map 
was regarded as the standard of geographical 
knowledge down to the time of Columbus. 
Even after his time the famous astronomer 
Galileo was imprisoned as a heretic partly for 
reasserting the theory of Ptolemy. No one 
but a few scientists even imagined that the 
east could be reached by sailing west ; no one, 
not even they, yet knew that Africa could 
be circumnavigated and the treasures of 
gorgeous Far Cathay (as China was then 
called) brought to Europe's doors by water. 
Yet it was to accomplish that very object 
that the series of voyages was begun that led 
eventually to the discovery of America. 

Venice and Genoa, grown rich and power- 
ful through trade with India and the nearer 
countries of the Orient, had for a space en- 
joyed a prosperity and revival of culture that 

3 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

were felt throughout Christendom. Then had 
come the conquest of Spain and domination 
of the Mediterranean by the Moors, and, 
afterward, the wars of the Crusades, which 
had checked the Saracen advance but inter- 
rupted all other commerce with the infidels. 
Meanwhile, as though to compensate for this 
loss, the great Mongolian conqueror Genghis 
Khan had fulfilled his remarkable destiny 
and, instead of adopting measures to prevent 
it, invited western intercourse with the coun- 
tries he had brought under his sway, and 
China, about which almost nothing was then 
generally known, was visited overland by 
traders, adventurers, and missionaries. Marco 
Polo, a Venetian, after spending more than 
twenty years in the far east, part of the time 
in the service of the Great Khan Kubilay, 
had returned by way of India and Per- 
sia, laden with jewels of enormous value, and 
had written a book descriptive of the coun- 
tries he had seen and the wealth and customs 
of the people. In the fourteenth century, 
when the Mongolian dynasty was overthrown, 
the Asiatics had again turned hostile and the 
land route was closed. 

But during this open season it had become 
4 



HISTORICAL SKETCH 

known that Cathay was not the end of the 
world, as had been supposed— that there was 
an ocean beyond and the wonderful Island of 
Cipango (Japan) and other islands rich in 
spices and costly products; and Europe be- 
gan to wonder, since the Tartars barred the 
route by land, whether these desirable places 
might not be accessible by water. "Between 
wondering and the attempt," says Haw- 
thorne, "there was a considerable interval, 
for the idea was too novel to be digested all 
at once. But it was an age of unbridled li- 
cense of imagination and of desperate cour- 
age. The mere possibility of encountering 
perils never until then conceived of was 
allurement enough, as, even to-day, our 
young adventurers go forth to die on the ice 
fields of the north and south poles, or in the 
mysterious heart of savage Africa, or on the 
ghastly plateaux of Tibet. In addition, 
there were the fabulous rewards that success 
seemed to promise." 

At first, though, if the plan of sailing west 
was even thought of, it would seem to have 
been regarded as less feasible than that of 
rounding Africa. Prince Henry, a son of 
King John I of Portugal — for it was the 

5 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

Portuguese, not the Spanish, who were the 
pioneers in this series of discoveries — deter- 
mined to devote his life to the work. Retir- 
ing from the splendors of the Lisbon court, 
he built an astronomical observatory on the 
promontory of Sagres (in southern Portu- 
gal), extended its hospitalities to all the wise 
men of the age and sent out expedition after 
expedition to the south. "Until then," says 
Dawson, "nautical knowledge was very 
meager. The compass served only to indi- 
cate direction, not distance or position, and 
did not suffice for the systematic navigation 
of the open Atlantic. The Portuguese first 
made that possible by using astronomical ob- 
servations and inventing the quadrant and 
astrolabe." 

This knowledge, once acquired, was 
promptly applied. Madeira was discovered 
in 1418, the Canaries in 1427, the Azores in 
1432. To the west the Portuguese ventured 
no farther, but, continuing south, they 
reached Cape Blanco in 1441, Senegambia 
and Cape Verde in 1445, the Cape Verde 
Islands in 1460, and the Gulf of Guinea in 
1469. In 1471 they were the first Europeans 
to cross the equator. The idea was then con- 

6 



HISTORICAL SKETCH 

ceived that they had only to keep on and 
they could round the southern extremity of 
the continent and reach Abyssinia and India 
by sea — a hope that was realized in 1487 
when Bartholomew Dias arrived at last at the 
Cape of Good Hope. A few miles beyond, 
however, he was compelled by the condition 
of his crew to return and it remained for his 
compatriot Vasco da Gama some years later 
to double the cape and complete the voyage 
up the eastern coast and across the Indian 
Ocean to Hindustan. 



II 

The significance of these early voyages 
of the Portuguese lies in the fact that 
thereby it was demonstrated that a shorter 
route was needed — that with the very small 
and badly equipped vessels of the period 
the trip around the Cape of Good Hope, at 
least for commercial purposes, was imprac- 
ticable; also in the fact that with Dias had 
sailed the Genoese navigator Bartholomew 
Columbus, & brother of the discoverer of 
America. 

Years before that first great achievement, 
7 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

Christopher Columbus — who had studied at 
the University of Pavia and had himself 
taken part in one or more of Prince Henry's 
African expeditions, and even ventured to the 
northwest, probably as far as Iceland — had 
been converted to the theory that the world 
was round and that the oceans west of Eu- 
rope and east of Cathay were the same. As 
a consequence, he had concluded, the East 
Indies (as India, China, Japan, and the other 
countries and islands east of the Indian Ocean 
were indiscriminately called) could be reached 
from Europe by sailing west. Eighteen years 
before he was finally enabled to put this the- 
ory to the test, he had written Toscanelli, 
one of the foremost astronomers of the time, 
asking his opinion as to this possibility. Tos- 
canelli sent him a copy of a letter he had 
written shortly before to King Alfonso of 
Portugal on the same subject, in which he 
said: 

"I have formerly spoken of a shorter route to the 
places of spices than you are pursuing by Guinea. 
Although I am well aware that this can be proved by 
the spherical shape of the earth, in order to make the 
point clearer I have decided to exhibit that route 
by means of a sailing chart, made by my own hands, 
whereon are laid down your coasts and the islands 

8 



HISTORICAL SKETCH 

from which you must begin to shape your course 
steadily westward, the places at which you are bound 
to arrive and how far from the pole or equator you 
ought to keep away." (Neither in the chart nor in 
the description was there indication of anything what- 
ever resembling the continents of North and South 
America.) "From the city of Lisbon as far as the 
very great and splendid city of Quinsay" (Pekin), 
he continued, "are twenty-six spaces, each of 250 
miles. This space is about a third of the whole sphere. 
But from the Island of Antilia, which you know, to 
the very splendid Island of Cipango" (Japan) "there 
are ten spaces. So, through the unknown parts of 
the route, the stretches of sea are not great " 

In his letter to Columbus he congratulates 
him on having undertaken an enterprise — 

"Fraught with honor, as it must be, and inestimable 
gain and most lofty fame among all Christian peoples. 
It will be a voyage to powerful kingdoms" (he pro- 
phetically added, though he had never even dreamed 
of the empires of the Aztecs and the Incas) "and to 
cities and provinces most wealthy and noble. It will 
also be advantageous to those kings and princes who 
are eager to have dealings and make alliances with 
the Christians of other countries. For these and 
many other reasons, I do not wonder that you, who are 
of great courage, and the whole Portuguese nation, 
which has always had men distinguished in such 
enterprises, are now inflamed with a desire to make 
the voyage." 

Thus encouraged, Columbus began his ef- 
9 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

forts to secure patronage and money for the 
expedition. He tried in his birthplace, Genoa, 
and in Portugal and Spain, even in England, 
where he was accompanied by his brother 
Bartholomew after the latter 's return from 
the voyage to the Cape of Good Hope, and 
suffered many refusals. Toscanelli had been 
dead eight years before he at last succeeded; 
and then, had he known that the distance from 
Lisbon to the coast of Asia was in fact some 
13,000 miles, or twice that which the astron- 
omer had estimated, and that, even so, the 
route straight across was barred by the Isth- 
mus of Panama — had he known that Cathay 
did not, as his mentor believed, extend some 
thousands of miles farther east than it does, 
even such a man as Columbus might have 
abandoned the project as chimerical when the 
cockleshells then available for ocean travel 
were taken into consideration. Nor, if she 
too had not been misled by the same "val- 
uable pieces of ignorance," is it likely that his 
plea would have prevailed on the practical 
Isabella of Castile, however elated and invin- 
cible she may have felt over the taking of 
the last of the Saracen strongholds at Gra- 
nada and the expulsion of the Moors from 

10 



HISTORICAL SKETCH 

Spain, for in that she was engaged when Co- 
lumbus finally succeeded in securing her aid. 
Fortunately, however, whatever might have 
happened if Toscanelli had not held the voy- 
age to be practicable, Columbus was not only 
a man of indomitable spirit but possessed of 
a presence that inspired in others the confi- 
dence he felt in himself. A man of striking 
personality, he is said to have been about 
forty-five years of age at the time, tall, well 
formed, and dignified, with sharp gray eyes, 
alight with "that divine spark of enthusiasm 
which makes true genius," and hair prema- 
turely white. And so, in spite of his many 
disheartening failures, he did not abandon the 
project; so also was Queen Isabella suffi- 
ciently impressed by his learning and appear- 
ance to agree, in consideration of a fifth share 
in the profits, that he should have the rank of 
Admiral and govern, as Viceroy, all the lands 
that he might discover and bring under her 
dominion. With the great astronomer's chart 
before him, therefore, and vowing to devote 
his share of the profits to the rescue of the 
Holy Sepulcher, he set out from Palos, 
Spain, on the 3d of August, 1492. His ves- 
sels, the Nina, Pint a (well named the "Pint 

11 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

Cup"), and Santa Maria, bore a company of 
but ninety, including the crews. 

After a voyage of ten weeks, filled with 
difficulties and hardships, even threats of 
mutiny, that taxed his courage and diplomacy 
to the utmost, he came to land on an island 
(now known as Watling's) on the outward 
bow of the Bahamas, to which he gave the 
name of San Salvador. The wild beauty of 
the foliage, the tropical luxuriance, the clear, 
fresh-water streams, the soft climate and per- 
fume-laden breezes, more than ever delightful 
to men who had given themselves up for lost, 
and the natives themselves, bedecked with 
gold ornaments and dusky-skinned as those 
of Cathay were said to be — all seemed what 
might have been expected in the outlying 
spice islands of the east. So, supposing this 
to be one of those islands of which they were 
in quest, the adventurers cruised about for 
ten days more and finally arrived at Cuba, 
which they assumed to be Cipango. 

In his infatuation, Columbus now saw his 
journey's end. He had, he thought, but to 
sail a few courses farther to reach the main- 
land of Cathay, exchange compliments with 
the Great Khan at Quinsay, and return in tri- 

12 



HISTORICAL SKETCH 

umph with the wealth he was to amass and 
herald the news of his wonderful achievement 
to a skeptical Europe. And all the while 
Cathay was ten thousand miles away — due 
west! Sailing across the strait to Hayti, he 
was directed south by the natives when ques- 
tioned as to the source of their gold; but 
there, for the time being, his explorations 
were brought to an end. The flagship was 
wrecked on a sand bar and Pinzon, captain 
of one of the remaining two, stole treacher- 
ously away, to anticipate the Admiral in an- 
nouncing the discoveries in Spain. Leaving 
a volunteer colony of about forty men to 
await his return with reinforcements, how- 
ever, he at once set sail, overtook and cap- 
tured the deserters, and, on the way back to 
Palos, was driven into the port of Lisbon by 
a gale. 

"The news of his exploit set all Portugal 
afire," says Hawthorne. 

"The King was urged to have Columbus run 
through the body and to appropriate his discovery; 
but John II perceived that there was more peril than 
profit in such a scheme, and he invited him to court 
and made much of him instead. In due time he re- 
sumed his voyage and reached Palos on the 15th 
of March. This was Columbus' apogee. He was 

13 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

called to Barcelona and welcomed in triumph; he was 
even allowed to sit down in the august presence of 
Ferdinand and Isabella. The half dozen Caribs he had 
brought with him were assumed to be East Indians 
and the Admiral's interpretation of his discoveries 
was accepted without question. The little detail that 
nothing of oriental magnificence — no Great Khans, no 
mighty cities — had yet been revealed, was passed over. 
Land had been found and it could be nothing but 
Cipango and Cathay. The short route to the Indies 
had been discovered for Spain." 

This so completely overshadowed all that 
Portugal had accomplished that an intense 
rivalry sprang up between the two powers. 
The Pope, as the Vicar of Christ on earth, 
and accordingly the repository of the title to 
all lands still occupied by infidel peoples, was 
appealed to to confirm the discoveries to 
Spain. He issued a bull granting to His 
Most Catholic Majesty the lands then, and 
such as might thereafter be, discovered in the 
western sea, and to the Portuguese such as 
they might discover by way of the African 
route. This was supplemented by a second 
to the effect that only those lands lying west 
of a meridian of longitude a hundred miles 
west of the Azores and Cape Verde Islands 
should belong to the Spaniards. Dissatisfied 

14 



HISTORICAL SKETCH 

even with that division, the Portuguese de- 
manded a line still farther west, and, by a 
treaty signed at Tordesillas in June, 1494, 
Spain agreed that it should be advanced in 
that direction 370 leagues. This resulted 
eventually in giving Portugal title to the then 
yet undiscovered country of Brazil. 

Meanwhile, on the 25th of September, 
1493, Columbus set out on his second expedi- 
tion—this time with seventeen ships and fif- 
teen hundred men, among them his brothers 
Bartholomew and Diego and many adventur- 
ers of noble rank, for there was no lack either 
of men or money now. "Their dreams," 
Professor Fiske tell us, "were of the marble 
palaces of Quinsay, of islands of spices and 
the treasures of the mythical Prester John. 
The sovereigns wept for joy as they thought 
that such untold riches were vouchsafed them 
as a reward for having overcome the Moor at 
Granada. Columbus shared these views and 
regarded himself as a special instrument for 
executing the divine decrees. He renewed his 
vow to rescue the Holy Sepulcher, promising 
within seven years to equip, at his own ex- 
pense, a crusading army of fifty thousand foot 
and four thousand horse." When the fleet 

15 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

arrived at Hayti and the company landed at 
the place where the little colony had been left, 
it was found that it had been annihilated. 
Not a whit dismayed by that, however, Co- 
lumbus ordered a town to be built and the 
island, which he named Espanola (Little 
Spain), became the base of hundreds of ex- 
ploring expeditions undertaken by the hordes 
of adventurers that followed in his wake and 
soon overran the neighboring islands. 

Columbus himself made two other voy- 
ages, in the course of which he discovered Ja- 
maica and the Island of Trinidad at the 
mouth of the Orinoco, reached the southern 
shores of Cuba, and, having heard rumors 
of another ocean to the west, coasted along 
the Central American mainland in search of 
a passage through. There he found stone 
houses and towns and what appeared to be a 
semi-civilized people, who wore clothes and 
knew how to weave cotton, embalm their 
dead, and carve ornaments on their tombs, 
and who had plenty of gold; and all this only 
confirmed his conviction that he was drawing 
nearer the countries of his quest. During this 
period, however, his fame was in turn over- 
shadowed by that of Vasco da Gama, who 

16 



HISTORICAL SKETCH 

had at last succeeded in discovering the Af- 
rican route to the Orient and had actually 
seen some of those spice islands and mighty 
cities that Columbus was still only searching 
for on the other side of the world so many 
thousands of miles away. 

In 1506, soon after his return from his 
fourth expedition, he died at Valladolid, dis- 
credited and defrauded of his viceregal pow- 
ers, a victim of treachery, jealousy, and in- 
trigue, yet still believing that he had found 
the western route to the Indies. Even then 
"nobody had the faintest idea of what he had 
accomplished," says Professor Fiske. "Noth- 
ing like it was ever done before and nothing 
like it can ever be done again. No worlds 
are left for future Columbuses to conquer. 
The era of which this great Italian was the 
most illustrious representative had closed for- 
ever." 

in 

Having, in the interval between the sec- 
ond Columbian expedition and the discovery 
of the African route by Vasco da Gama, in- 
duced Spain to agree to the extension of the 
Papal meridian 370 leagues farther west, the 

17 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

Portuguese continued their activities with 
renewed ardor. In March, 1500, on his way 
to the Cape of Good Hope, Pedro Alvarez 
Cabral, a Portuguese nobleman in command 
of an expedition intended to resume the work 
begun by Da Gama, was blown across the At- 
lantic to the coasts of Brazil, where he touched 
at a point in the southern part of what is now 
the State of Bahia. Under the impression 
that it was an island, and assuming that it lay 
east of the Tordesillas treaty line, he landed 
and took possession in the name of his King. 
The news having reached Portugal in the Fall 
of the same year, no time was lost in asserting 
title and sending out a small fleet to ascertain 
the extent and resources of the region, also 
in the hope that a wealthy and civilized peo- 
ple like that of Hindustan would be found. 
This expedition was placed under the com- 
mand of Amerigo Vespucci, a Florentine as- 
tronomer and navigator, who had already 
made two voyages for Spain and skirted the 
coast of Yucatan and the northern conti- 
nent, around Florida, as far north as the 
Chesapeake. Setting sail now to the south, 
he made a systematic examination of the Bra- 
zilian coast for two thousand miles. All he 

18 



HISTORICAL SKETCH 

found that seemed to have any immediate 
commercial value were immense quantities of 
a dyewood known in Europe as "brazil" (the 
color of fire) ; it was from this, of course, that 
the country took its name. The Portuguese, 
being by that time, however, too engrossed in 
their African mines and sugar plantations 
and East Indian trade to think it worth while 
to found colonies in such a region, did noth- 
ing to develop it until thirty years had passed 
by and it became necessary for them to pro- 
tect their rights, particularly from the French, 
who had been tempted by the great demand 
for the dyewood to engage in coastwise poach- 
ing on a large scale. 

For this reason, to his contemporaries, the 
most interesting feature of Vespucci's report 
was the conviction he expressed that this 
country south of the equator was neither Asia 
nor an island, but a new continent, or, as he 
himself called it, a "new world" — "for it 
transcends the ideas of the ancients," he said 
in a letter to his friend Soderini, "since most 
of them declare that, beyond the equator to 
the south, there is no continent but only the 
sea which they call the Atlantic; but this last 
voyage of mine has proved that this opinion 

19 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

of theirs is erroneous, because in these south- 
ern regions I have found a continent more 
thickly inhabited by peoples and animals than 
our Europe or Asia or Africa, and, moreover, 
a climate more temperate and agreeable than 
any known to us." In 1504 this letter was 
published under the title "Mundus Novus." 
The term "new world" caught the popular 
fancy, and although, in 1497, Columbus first 
of all, and later Vespucci himself with Alonso 
de Ojeda, had cruised along and touched at 
points on its Caribbean coast, by virtue of his 
Brazilian explorations Vespucci was ac- 
claimed the discoverer. 

And therein was the source of the con- 
fusion that gave to South America, and event- 
ually to the northern continent as well, the 
name they bear rather than one commemora- 
tive of Columbus. No one suspected that 
there were two oceans instead of only the 
Atlantic between Europe and Asia; that the 
land Amerigo Vespucci had explored south 
of the equator was of a piece with that dis- 
covered by Columbus to the north. It was 
conceived to be entirely detached from and to 
the south of Cathay, which Columbus was still 
supposed to have reached, and to lie in a po- 

20 



HISTORICAL SKETCH 

sition somewhat similar to that which Aus- 
tralia was afterward found to occupy. Con- 
sequently, when in 1507 Mathias Ringmann 
published his "Introductio Cosmograpliie" 
he proposed that this (as he estimated it) 
"fourth part of the globe" be called "Amer- 
igo" The following year Martinus Waldsee- 
muller published his map, whereon for the 
first time the name "America" appeared. In- 
vestigation has made it clear that fhere was 
no attempt, as Vespucci's maligners charged, 
to immortalize his name at the expense of 
Columbus. The southern continent was not 
named for Columbus simply because it was 
thought to be distinct from his discoveries; 
the northern, because it was thought already 
to have been named Cathay. 

At last, when the existence across the At- 
lantic of a continuous stretch of land had 
been comprehended, and when, in the light of 
the Portuguese discoveries by way of the Af- 
rican route, it was realized that these strange 
coasts did not in the least coincide with the 
ideas formed of them by those who had as- 
sumed them to be Asiatic, the conviction grew 
that the fabulous treasure lands of the Orient 
had not been reached by this western route 

21 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

at all. The whole stretch must be embraced 
in the new world, it was concluded; there 
must be another ocean than the Atlantic be- 
yond. "Rumors of it had been heard, or 
glimpses caught, perhaps, at one time or an- 
other," says Hawthorne, "before the actual 
fact was understood. Meanwhile Spain was 
very anxious to get through or around this 
singular barrier of islands, or whatever it was 
that was keeping her from sharing the profits 
that Da Gama had brought to Portugal from 
Hindustan, and she sent out expeditions to 
accomplish it." In 1505 Amerigo Vespucci 
(who haci returned to the Spanish flag), with 
La Cosa, explored the Gulf of Darien and 
penetrated two hundred miles up the Atrato, 
thinking it might prove a strait leading to 
the Asiatic waters. Juan de Solis was try- 
ing to find it when he explored the Rio de la 
Plata and met his death at the hands of the 
natives. Jacques Cartier was seeking it when 
he explored the St. Lawrence, D'Ayllon when 
he tried the Chesapeake and James, and 
Hendrik Hudson when he ascended the river 
that bears his name. 

In 1513, Vasco Nunez de Balboa, Governor 
of Darien, a valiant adventurer who had been 

22 



HISTORICAL SKETCH 

prominent in the conquest and colonization 
of the Isthmus, undertook by means of an 
expedition by land to ascertain whether such 
an ocean did really exist. Starting with a 
company of about a hundred and ninety 
Spaniards and a few Indians, he skirted the 
coast of Panama to a point near Cape Ti- 
buron, and there disembarked and headed in- 
land. For twenty days his party persevered 
over forest-clad swamps, valleys, and moun- 
tains, fought a pitched battle with the na- 
tives, and finally cut its way through the 
dense undergrowth to the heights overlook- 
ing what is now known as the Gulf of San 
Miguel, on the Pacific side, and thus resolved 
all doubt into certainty and completed an 
event which, declares Dawson, "was second 
in its far-reaching consequences only to Co- 
lumbus' first voyage." Balboa dubbed it the 
Southern Sea, little thinking that it was a 
body of water more vast than the Atlantic 
that he had found to bar the way to Cathay. 
"So elated was he over his epoch-making 
discovery," says Mozans, quoting from an 
early chronicler, that — 

"With no lesse manlye courage than Hannibal of 
Carthage shewed his souldiers Italye and the pro- 

23 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

montories of the Alps, he exhorted his men to lyft up 
they re hartes and to behoulde the land even now 
under theyre feete and the sea before theyre eyes, 
which shoulde bee unto them a full and juste reward of 
theyre great laboures and trauayles now ouerpassed. 
When he had sayde these woordes, he commanded them 
to raise certeine heapes of stones in the steede of 
altars for a token of possession. Then, descendynge 
from the toppes of the mountaynes, lest such as might 
come after hym shoulde argu hym of lyinge and fals- 
hod, he wrote the Kyng of Castelles his name here and 
there on the barkes, of the trees, both on the ryght 
hande and on the lefte, and raysed heapes of stones all 
the way that he went untyll he came to the region 
of the nexte Kynge towarde the south, whose name 
was Chiapes." 



"The act of taking possession was so 
typical of similar formalities of the Conquis- 
tadores," continues Mozans, "that I tran- 
scribe from Oviedo his account of the man- 
ner in which Balboa and his companions 
claimed for his sovereign the Sea of the 
South, all islands in it and all lands border- 
ing on it, in what part of the world soever. 
Armed with his sword and bearing aloft a 
banner on which were painted an image of 
the Blessed Virgin and the Divine Child 
and the arms of Castile and Leon, Balboa, 
followed by his associates, entered the water 

24 



HISTORICAL SKETCH 

until it rose above his knees, when in a loud 
voice he said: 

" 'Long live the high and mighty monarchs, Don 
Ferdinand and Dona Juana, Sovereigns of Castile, 
of Leon and of Aragon, in whose name and for the 
royal crown of Castile, I take real and corporal and 
actual possession of these seas and lands and coasts 
and ports and islands of the south, and all thereunto 
annexed, and of the kingdoms and provinces which 
do or may appertain to them, in whatever manner or 
by whatever right or title, ancient or modern, in times 
past, present or to come, without any contradiction ; 
and if other prince or captain, Christian or infidel, or 
of any law, sect or condition whatsoever, shall pretend 
any right to these islands and seas, I am ready and 
prepared to maintain and defend them in the name of 
the Castilian Sovereigns, present and future, whose 
is the empire and dominion over these Indias, islands 
and terra firma, northern and southern, with all their 
seas, both at the arctic and antarctic poles, on either 
side of the equinoctial line, whether within or without 
the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, both now and at 
all times so long as the world shall endure and until 
the final judgment of all mankind.' And then the 
Notary, who always accompanied such expeditions, 
was ordered to make on the spot an exact record of 
what had been said and done, which was duly signed 
and authenticated by all present." 

It was to the Portuguese navigator Fernao 
de Magalhaes (Ferdinand Magellan in the 
English rendering of the name) that the 

25 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

honor finally fell of being the first, not alone 
to find the passage through the new conti- 
nent that was being so eagerly sought, but 
to cross by the western route to the East In- 
dies and thereby blaze the way to making 
geography an exact science. He had already 
been to the Moluccas by the African route, 
and, disgusted by the failure of his King 
suitably to reward his services, had trans- 
ferred his allegiance to Spain and managed 
to secure from the Emperor Charles V a 
commission and five ships, the largest of 
but 120 tons' burden. On the 20th of Sep- 
tember, 1419, he sailed from the Guadalquivir, 
with a crew numbering 280, all told, and, 
having entered the Plata River and satisfied 
himself that it was not a strait, ran down the 
Patagonian coast through many storms un- 
til he found shelter in the harbor of St. 
Julian, where, on Easter Sunday, a mutiny 
broke out that only a man of such remark- 
able courage and resourcefulness as Magellan 
possessed could have suppressed. It had 
been a hard voyage, the chances of finding the 
strait seemed slim, there was only the pros- 
pect that there they must remain throughout 
the antarctic winter in idleness and discom- 

26 



HISTORICAL SKETCH 

fort; it is small wonder that they wanted to 
desert. 

However, during the last week in August 
spring began (the seasons are reversed south 
of the equator, it must be remembered) and 
the fleet, without the Santiago, which had 
been wrecked, proceeded to the south. After 
experiencing much more bad weather, they 
made Cape Virgins on the 21st of October 
and entered a large bay, which was flanked by 
lofty mountains, crowned with glaciers and 
snow. This at last was the entrance to the 
passage, but at that very point one of the 
vessels, the San Antonio, seized an opportu- 
nity to make its escape and return to Spain. 
"For five weeks," as Hawthorne relates, "the 
remaining three ships wound along through 
the tortuous channel. Provisions were run- 
ning short, yet Magellan would not turn back 
'even if he had to eat the leather off the 
ships' yards.' At length his persistence was 
rewarded by a sight of the open sea. 'When,' 
to quote Richard Eden, 'the Capitayne was 
past the stray ght and saw the way open to 
the mayne sea, he was so gladde thereof that 
for joy the teares fell from his eyes and he 
named the poynte of the lande from whense 

n 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

he first saw that sea Cape Desiderato.' And 
the broad ocean which lay before him was so 
calm, after his many stormful days, that he 
called it the Pacific." 

"But months of a voyage as trying as any 
they had encountered still lay before them," 
Hawthorne goes on. "Could the planet be so 
vast? Until December they kept a northerly 
course, then struck out boldly across the un- 
known waste. They ran across one or two 
islands, but erelong were swallowed up in 
the seemingly endless immensity of ocean. 
They were reduced to the utmost extremities 
for food and water; scurvy broke out; nine- 
teen men died and thirty were too ill to work. 
Finally, on the 6th of March, they reached 
the Ladrone Islands, so named because of 
the thievishness of the natives. Here they 
got fruit and other food, and the worst was 
over. Ten days later the Philippines were 
sighted and Magellan knew the extent of his 
achievement. He had sailed round the world. 
Happier than Columbus, he did not survive 
this mightiest exploit of his time; in a fight 
with the natives the great sailor was killed." 

Only one of the little vessels ever got back 
to Spain. Returning by way of Africa, she 

28 



HISTORICAL SKETCH 

arrived at the Guadalquivir in September, a 
year after she had set out, and with but 
eighteen survivors of the expedition. "What 
a picture!" the historian exclaims — "those 
eighteen seaworn mariners in their battered 
craft, survivors of the greatest feat of navi- 
gation that has ever been performed. What 
a poem is their story, what an event in the 
history of mankind! What reward did Ma- 
gellan have? None that mortal could bestow. 
He was dead and his wife and son had also 
died. Del Cano, the captain of the ship, was 
given a crest, with the legend, on a terrestrial 
globe, 'Primus circumdedisti mej together 
with a pension of five hundred ducats, and 
Espinosa was likewise pensioned and en- 
nobled. But every mariner who sails the seas 
knows Magellan and the story of his exploit, 
and mankind accords him the honor that 
Spain could not bestow. Of all the great 
explorers, he is perhaps the one whose char- 
acter and deeds we can contemplate with the 
most unalloyed satisfaction." 

rv 

Until the great Dutch navigator, Willim 
Cornells Schouten, found the way around 

29 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

Cape Horn nearly a hundred years later, how- 
ever, no practical advantage over her rival re- 
sulted to Spain from Magellan's discoveries 
— so far as trade with the East Indies was 
concerned, that is. The passage through the 
Strait was too perilous for sailing vessels, the 
distance across the Pacific too great. Yet 
only a year before Magellan set out on his 
famous voyage an era began in her new pos- 
sessions that was to pour into her coffers a 
stream of gold in comparison with which the 
profits Portugal was deriving from her trade 
with the Orient seemed trivial. For in that 
year Hernando Cortes, the greatest soldier 
and statesman Spain ever sent to the new 
world, began his conquest of Mexico. 

Except for the spirit of emulation it in- 
spired, except for the knowledge it brought 
of the existence in the newly discovered coun- 
tries of a people less barbarous than the 
aborigines of the Antilles, of mines that 
were worth while and of enormous hoards of 
treasure, the story of that conquest has no 
place in the history of South America, and, 
therefore, will not be gone into here. It is re- 
lated somewhere as an interesting commen- 
tary that in an obscure little house in the City 

30 



HISTORICAL SKETCH 

of Mexico still lives a modest, well-educated 
gentleman who is directly descended from 
the Emperor of the Aztecs. Sefior Monte- 
zuma entertains no hope of a restoration, it 
is said, but quietly accepts the meager pen- 
sion allowed him by the present government, 
while the heirs of Cortes receive immense 
revenues from their Mexican estates and the 
Marquis del Valle, as the present-day Cortes 
is called, lives in luxury and is a man of influ- 
ence and power in the land. 

In 1526, Sebastian Cabot was commissioned 
by the King of Spain to locate the Papal 
meridian in America and then to follow in 
Magellan's track and determine the corre- 
sponding longitude on the Asiatic side; but, 
when he put in at the mouth of the Rio de la 
Plata, he heard rumors of a great and wealthy 
people who dwelt near the headwaters of the 
river — rumors like those Grijalva had heard 
respecting the Aztecs and which had led to 
the Mexican conquest by Cortes; only these 
wonderful accounts were of a South Ameri- 
can empire. In proof of what they said, the 
Indians of the Plata exhibited silver orna- 
ments that had passed from hand to hand 
from the highlands of Bolivia and Peru, along 

31 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

the river to the Atlantic; and, too strongly 
tempted to resist, and trusting that the dis- 
covery of the rich mines from which this sil- 
ver came would excuse their disobedience, 
Cabot and his company abandoned their sur- 
vey and spent three years exploring and 
prospecting along the Uruguay and Parana 
is far north as the present site of the city of 
Asuncion. As their forces and provisions 
were inadequate to enable them to penetrate 
farther, the search was in vain; and so, hav- 
ing found, on their return to a fort they had 
established, that it had been taken by the In- 
dians and the garrison massacred, Cabot 
abandoned the effort and went back to Spain 
to make what explanation he could. 

The news of this supposed encroachment, 
added to the ever increasing poaching of the 
French, proved what was needed to stimulate 
the Portuguese at last to make a serious at- 
tempt at colonization in Brazil. One Chris- 
tovao Jaques and a few settlers had already 
established a small sugar factory in the neigh- 
borhood of the present site of Pernambuco, 
and it had been found that much of the land 
in the northern part of the country was 
admirably adapted to the cultivation of that 

C10 



HISTORICAL SKETCH 

staple, the demand for which in Europe was 
constantly increasing. Five vessels were sent 
out, therefore, under the command of Martim 
Affonso da Souza. Early in 1531 he drew 
near Cape St. Roque, captured three French 
ships laden with brazil wood, sent part of his 
own fleet north to explore the coast beyond, 
and with the other ships sailed south and 
dropped anchor near the site of what is now 
the great coffee port of Santos. There he 
established Sao Vicente, the first permanent 
colony in Brazil. 

There also they came across one Joao Ra- 
malho, a former sailor who had been put 
ashore for mutiny years before by a ship on 
its way to India and was living among the 
natives of the neighborhood with his half- 
breed children. Glad enough to welcome his 
countrymen, he disposed the Indians to peace 
and showed the Portuguese the way up the 
mountains to the vast plateau that begins only 
a. few miles from the sea. There, near the 
present site of Sao Paulo, was founded an- 
other settlement, from whence they could 
stretch out in all directions over what was 
destined to become the greatest coffee-pro- 
ducing country in the world. 

33 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

A year or two afterward, encouraged by 
Da Souza's success, Duarte Coelho set out 
with a carefully selected and more numerous 
company and founded the colony of Pernam- 
buco. Here, as in the south, the country back 
of the coast was fertile and easily accessible 
and there was little trouble with the Indians. 
Sugar planting proved wonderfully profit- 
able, Coelho turned out to be a good man- 
ager, and so politic was he in the relations 
with the mother country that within a few 
years the colony had become self-supporting 
and, like the other, possessed of all the ele- 
ments of permanence and prosperity. Soon 
afterward Sao Salvador da Bahia was estab- 
lished. With such a beginning, it was not 
long before the Portuguese began flocking 
to Brazil as the Spaniards had to the Carib- 
bean. 



In the meanwhile in this region of the 
Caribbean much progress had been made. 
Towns had been built, not only in Espanola, 
but in Cuba, Jamaica, Porto Rico and in 
Darien an$ other places on the Isthmus, 
landed estates (repartimientos) had been ap- 

34 



HISTORICAL SKETCH 

portioned, as rewards for services, among 
such as desired to cultivate them, mining 
rights had been allotted. These plantations 
and the mines were being worked by natives 
impressed into slavery, some of the communi- 
ties had become large and thriving, in Spain 
a Council of the Indies and in the islands lo- 
cal governmental tribunals (Real Audiencias) 
had been created. 

Whole fleets of ships plied back and forth 
across the Atlantic, those setting out from 
Spain laden with implements of agriculture 
and war, clothes, and fresh companies of ad- 
venturers, coming over as colonists, or to 
continue the work of conquest and the search 
for treasure; those returning, laden with the 
products of the tropics and with gold and 
precious stones. Emeralds had been found 
near the coast of Colombia, and Balboa had 
discovered in the Gulf of San Miguel — that 
famous group of islands where, as Mozans 
tells us, "pearls were so common that the 
natives used them for adorning the paddles 
of their canoes" — pearls "as large as filberts 
and of exceeding beauty of form and luster," 
many of which, "found in the same fisheries 
a short time subsequently, at once took place 

35 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

among the largest and most perfect of the 
world's gems." 

Nevertheless, neither there nor anywhere 
else in the Caribbean region, had any vast 
wealth and civilization comparable to that of 
the Mexicans been discovered. Balboa, how- 
ever, had married, according to the Indian 
custom, the daughter of a cacique (na- 
tive chief), and, being in the confidence of 
the Indians of his province, had heard ru- 
mors, even before the conquest of Mexico, 
of a rich and powerful empire to the south 
(the same that were afterward heard by 
Cabot) ; and, after he had been succeeded 
as Governor by his jealous rival, the no- 
torious Pedrarias Davila, was commissioned 
to take charge of an expedition to go in 
search of it. Already he had accomplished 
the unheard-of task of taking four ships to 
pieces on the Caribbean shore, transporting 
them across the Isthmus and reconstructing 
them on the shore of San Miguel, and, when 
about to sail, had been arrested by order of 
Pedrarias, tried on a charge of treason, and 
executed before he could appeal to Spain. 
Some years later, having forestalled his great 
rival in that summary way, Pedrarias en- 

36 



HISTORICAL SKETCH 

trusted the venture to one Francisco Pizarro, 
an opportunist, without money, rank, or 
credit, and then nearly fifty years old, yet 
one who startled the world by an achieve- 
ment equaled only by Cortes' own. 

Francisco Pizarro had been but a swine- 
herd in his boyhood, but later had served 
under Gonzolo de Cordova (El Gran Capi- 
tan) in that splendid body of infantrymen 
which fought its way to the foremost rank 
in Europe, and was a son, too, though an 
illegitimate one, of a Spanish officer of 
noble blood. For such a man, as Dawson 
says, "an admirable soldier, conscious that 
he possessed powers of the highest order yet 
hopelessly handicapped in old Europe by 
his base birth and illiteracy, the discovery of 
the new world opened up a field for his 
talents" that led him "eagerly to embrace 
the opportunity to embark with Alonso de 
Ojeda in 1509 for the Darien gold mines." 
His first appearance in history is as a 
member of the party that went with Balboa 
to search for the Pacific; afterward he was 
among the first of "the adventurers that 
flocked to the new city of Panama, looking 
over the mysterious sea, like a pack of wolves 

37 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

eager for a share in the spoils of its unknown 
shores;" later he happened to be the officer 
chosen by Pedrarias for Balboa's arrest. 

As he had no funds of his own, and since 
it was the custom of the times for the Con- 
quistadores who undertook such expeditions 
to do so at their own expense, he associated 
with him a priest named Hernando de Luque, 
who had some capital, and Diego de Almagro, 
a soldier of still more advanced age but of 
ability and good reputation. It was agreed 
that the Padre de Luque should contribute 
the funds, that Almagro should attend to the 
collecting and forwarding of troops and sup- 
plies, and that Pizarro himself should have 
the active command. Whereupon they 
bought one of the ships that had been carried 
across the Isthmus by Balboa and set out on 
their first expedition in 1524. As so fre- 
quently occurred in such cases, however, in- 
adequacy of provisions caused the venture 
to fail. 

Eighteen months later they sailed again, 
with a much larger stock of supplies and 
this time with 160 men. For hundreds of 
miles they found nothing but the same 
swampy, forest-clad wastes along the Co- 

38 




FRANCISCO PiZARRO. 



HISTORICAL SKETCH 

lombian shore, inhabited only by naked tribes 
of savages. Pizarro's disheartened compan- 
ions, too ready to believe that the country 
they were seeking was but a myth, would 
have had him return; but one day the pilot, 
who had been sent on ahead, suddenly reap- 
peared with the news that he had penetrated 
south of the equator and had there met a 
large trading raft on its way north, bearing 
cloth, silver work, vases, and other things per- 
taining to civilization and manned by a crew 
that wore clothes. These men, the pilot re- 
ported, had told him that they came from a 
town called Tumbez, which lay in a fertile 
valley behind a penetrable coast — that the 
whole interior of the country was inhabited 
by a civilized people, subjects of an emperor 
whose capital was a great city, high up in the 
mountains still farther south. On this con- 
firmation of their hopes, the commander suc- 
ceeded in inducing his men to push on until 
they had reached nearly as far as the north- 
ern boundary of Ecuador, where he landed 
most of the company on an island called 
Gallo and sent Almagro back to Panama for 
more provisions and supplies. 

At Gallo the climate proved unhealthful; 
39 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

fevers soon decimated the party; even their 
clothes were rotted by the almost incessant 
rains and steamy heat, and, as though that 
were not enough, when the Governor learned 
from members of the crew who had returned 
that the men were being held there against 
their will, he flew into a rage, instead of send- 
ing supplies and reinforcements, and des- 
patched a ship to bring back all who wished to 
desert. Only emboldened by these misfor- 
tunes, Pizarro "drew his sword and traced a 
line with it on the sand from east to west," 
says Montesino in his Anales del Peru. 
"Then, turning toward the south, 'Friends 
and comrades,' he said, 'on that side are toil, 
hunger, nakedness, the drenching storm, de- 
sertion, and death ; on this side, ease and pleas- 
ure. There lies Peru with its riches; here 
Panama and its poverty. Choose, each man, 
what best becomes a brave Castilian. For my 
part, I go to the south,' and, so saying, he 
stepped across the line." He was followed by 
the pilot Ruiz, a Greek cavalier named de 
Candia, and only eleven others. There is, in- 
deed, as Prescott comments — 

"Something striking to the imagination in the spec- 
40 



HISTORICAL SKETCH 

tacle of those few brave spirits consecrating themselves 
to a daring enterprise that seemed as far above their 
strength as any recorded in the fabulous annals of 
knight-errantry. A handful of men, without food, 
without clothing, almost without arms, without knowl- 
edge of the land to which they were bound, without 
even a vessel to transport them, were left there on a 
rock in the ocean with the avowed purpose of carrying 
on a crusade against a powerful empire, staking their 
lives on its success. What is there in the legends of 
chivalry that surpasses it? " 

For weary months they awaited the return 
of Almagro with the provisions, and the mo- 
ment they arrived set sail for the Gulf of 
Guayaquil. Landing at Tumbez, says Daw- 
son, "with their own eyes they saw confirma- 
tion of what the Indians of the raft had told 
them. Irrigated fields, green with beautiful 
crops, lined the river bank; eighty thousand 
people, all comfortably housed, lived in the 
valley; commerce was flourishing ; large tem- 
ples, profusely ornamented with gold and sil- 
ver, testified to their wealth and culture; the 
government was well ordered and stable, and 
the people received the visitors with open- 
handed hospitality." It is easy enough to 
imagine with what longing eyes these forlorn 
adventurers who had risked and endured so 

41 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

much must have gazed on such a scene as 
this! 

Yet, concluding that his force was too 
small even for a raid, and thinking it wiser, 
anyway, after what had happened, to be in- 
vested with independent powers before mak- 
ing any attempt at a conquest, Pizarro made 
his way back to Spain and related his ex- 
periences to the King, who was so greatly 
impressed both with the story and the peti- 
tioner's noble and commanding presence that 
he did more than merely commission him to 
undertake a new expedition: he legitimized 
him and created him marquis, appointed him 
Adelantado (governor) of such countries as 
he might conquer, created Almagro marshal, 
and made the thirteen who had so gallantly 
stood by them gentlemen of coat armor. 

On Pizarro's return to Panama, he brought 
with him a few kindred spirits selected from 
among the very flower of the fighting men 
of the Peninsula, including his brothers Her- 
nando, Juan, and Gonzalo and his half- 
brother, Francisco Alcantara, his equals in 
valor if not in audacity and intellect. And 
then, as he believed from what he had seen of 
the fighting on the Isthmus, that a few scores 

42 



HISTORICAL SKETCH 

of good men, mail-clad and well provided with 
artillery and horses — for these, unknown in 
the new world before the advent of the 
Spaniards, had never failed to strike terror 
to the natives — would be as effective as 
thousands in overcoming undisciplined masses 
of Indians, armed in their inferior fashion, 
instead of attempting to assemble an army 
he got together only a small company com- 
posed of men of whose courage and experi- 
ence he was well assured. Having arranged 
with Almagro to follow with what reinforce- 
ments he could recruit from among the un- 
employed adventurers in Nicaragua, he set 
out once more. 

This time he happened to land first 
among the less civilized tribes in Ecuador, 
where he had the good fortune to find a 
rich store of emeralds and gold, which he 
sent back to Almagro to encourage him in 
his work. Then, marching down the coast 
to Guayaquil, he crossed to the island of 
Puna to await the reinforcements, conquered 
the fierce inhabitants of the place, and was 
afterward joined by a detachment sent out 
by his associate under the command of Her- 
nando de Soto, an adventurer who had served 

43 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

with Cortes in Mexico and was later to 
attain still greater fame as the discoverer 
of the Mississippi. Even with those De Soto 
brought, the whole force numbered less than 
two hundred and fifty. 

Though they had not the faintest idea of it 
then, the empire they were destined to bring 
under the Spanish sway covered a territory 
along the plateaux and eastern and Pacific 
slopes of the Andes extending from Quito 
in Ecuador to the river Maule in Chile, a 
distance of nearly three thousand miles, in- 
habited by hardy and warlike races, that 
numbered, according to the estimate of the 
early historians, somewhere near twenty mil- 
lions of people. 

VI 

So great was the empire of the Incas. But 
from whom were these remarkable rulers de- 
scended who brought their people to a state 
of civilization relatively so superior to that 
of the savages east of the Andes? To what 
race did they belong? From whence did 
they originally come — Europe or Asia? — and, 
if so, how did they get to South America? 
How did they acquire the knowledge of the 

44 



HISTORICAL SKETCH 

arts and sciences that they possessed? "Stu- 
dents of archaeology have essayed in vain to 
answer these questions," says Mozans. "All 
is still shrouded in mystery — in mystery even 
darker than that which veils the advent of 
the Toltecs and Aztecs to the valley of Ana- 
huac, more profound than that which ob- 
scures the first beginnings of the civilizations 
on the elevated Pamirs and in the valleys of 
the Nile and Euphrates. In all this uncer- 
tainty and mystery, however," he adds, 

"One fact seems to remain incontrovertible, and 
that is that Manco Capac and Mama Oello" (the 
founders of the dynasty) "first appeared on the shores 
of Lake Titicaca" (a body of water nearly as large 
as Lake Erie, lying between the two main Cordillera 
of the Andes in southeastern Peru, two miles and a 
half up above the level of the sea). "On this point 
tradition and the concurrent testimony of the earlier 
historians are practically at one. . . . Another 
fact, too, is unquestioned. Whether Manco Capac, 
the Minos of Peru, was of foreign or of native birth, 
it is certain that he was able, in the space of thirty 
years, to lay the foundation of that vast empire which, 
under the Inca Yupanqui, extended its conquests to 
the Maule in Chile, and, under Huayna Capac, 
planted its victorious banners above the fortresses of 
the Shiri" (the Cacique of the Caras), "in the ex- 
tended territory of Quito, and which gave its laws 
and religion and language to hundreds of conquered 
tribes." 

45 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

"What is one to do with no historical rec- 
ords to study over?" asks Hawthorne. 

"The Aztecs did have some sort of writing, and, 
though we have not yet learned how to read it, we 
may solace ourselves with the hope that enlightenment 
may sometime come ; but the people of the Andes 
did not even use hieroglyphics. Their sole documents 
were knotted strings. These strings, which they 
called quipus, were of course merely aids to memory — 
in the same way that a knot in a handkerchief enables 
a husband to remember the instructions his wife gives 
him when he sets out for the city, and which could 
not be written down in many pages. . . . Never- 
theless, we have traditions in plenty. . . . Start- 
ing with the reasonable assumption that there must 
have been a very considerable past before the Span- 
iards appeared, we may construct various more or 
less plausible surmises, based on the Cyclopean archi- 
tectural ruins which are distributed about the country. 
Marvelous works they are, though their form, and 
the carvings with which they are decorated, are less 
impressive than their mere size and weight. . . . 
It has been very generally thought that they were 
the handiwork of the prehistoric Piruas ; yet, since 
the Piruas are prehistoric, it is not to be expected 
that much historic information concerning them is 
obtainable. . . . The ruins had been abandoned long 
before the Spaniards came and the Indians knew 
nothing of their origin." 

"Still, it is indisputable," he goes on to say, 

"that in Peru the grade of culture found in Mex- 

46 



HISTORICAL SKETCH 

ico at the time of the conquest must have been 
reached and passed many ages earlier. In proof of 
this we have the fact that the Peruvians alone had 
succeeded in domesticating animals. Only the dog 
had been adapted to man's service in other parts of 
America. Here the domestic llama, for instance, was 
derived from the wild huanacu and the alpaca from 
the vicuna. Many centuries would be required in 
order to bring about these results. Several varieties 
of maize were also produced under cultivation, and 
the Peruvian species of cotton plant is known to 
exist only as it appears under cultivation. Wild 
tubers were found in Peru from which the potato was 
educed. Now, it has been proven by experiment that 
wild potatoes require a very long time to put on 
a civilized complexion. It was in Peru that the 
potato, as we know it, was first discovered. It was 
not cultivated north of Darien. Raleigh brought 
the first specimens to Ireland in 1568, but it was not 
until the end of the eighteenth century that they 
came into general use in Europe. The Peruvians 
practiced irrigation and manured their crops with 
guano." 



And he continues: 

"The materials for this nation were provided by 
the four tribes — Incas, Quichuas, Canas, and Cauchis 
— scattered over the northwest of South America. 
They were all mountaineers, short but strong and 
active, with soft, brown skins, black hair, and arched 
noses. At first the tribes were composed of clans, but 
the Incas settled in the lofty valley of Cuzco and 

47 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

from that coign of vantage gradually subdued the 
other tribes. Unlike the Aztecs, they confirmed their 
conquests, not by exacting tribute, but by military 
occupation of the subject territory. The town of 
Cuzco was built about the end of the twelfth century 
and the work of internal organization was begun. It 
is at this point that solid historical information first 
comes to hand. A succession of head chiefs or kings 
had already been instituted. These monarchs were 
called Incas par excellence — the Inca of all minor 
Incas. To this general name, nicknames were added, 
by way of distinguishing them. Finally, the eighth 
of the line was called Viracocha, which means Sun- 
God, and indicated that by that epoch the Incas had 
acquired something of the divinity that doth hedge 
a king. 

"Viracocha annexed the land of the Aymaras" (in 
Bolivia), "who are suspected of descent from the 
builders of Tiahuanucu" (where are some of the most 
interesting of the ruins). "In the next reign the 
strong tribe of the Chancas, living close to the 
equator, resisted the march of conquest, but were 
finally defeated under the walls of Cuzco and their 
country afterward annexed. The Chimus, who gave 
its name to Chimborazo, were the next victims of the 
Incas, who now ruled the region from Lake Titicaca 
to the equator and from the Andes to the sea. It 
was under the Inca Yupanqui that this conquest took 
place, and he is regarded as the great hero of Peru- 
vian history. To him was applied the name Pacha- 
cutec, Changer of the World. The successor of this 
champion extended the dominion of his people so much 
farther that it became necessary to found the city of 
Quito to keep watch over the northern portion of the 

48 



HISTORICAL SKETCH 

empire. He brought in the valley of Pachacamac, 
where there was an ancient and desirable temple, and 
also penetrated far into Chile. . . . 

"The Inca language was spoken throughout the 
empire. Garrisons were distributed at strategic 
points and were connected by the famous roads which 
have been the wonder and admiration of the world. 
. . . There was a central highway from Quito 
to Cuzco, and thence southward, which is thus 
described by the historian Cieza" (de Leon): "'I 
believe that since the history of man has been recorded 
there has been no account of such grandeur as is to 
be seen on this road, which passes over deep valleys 
and lofty mountains, by snowy heights, over falls of 
water, through the living rocks and along the edges 
of furious torrents. In all these places it is level 
and paved, along mountain slopes well excavated, 
through the living rock cut, along the river banks 
supported by walls, in the snowy heights with steps 
and resting places, in all parts clean-swept, clear of 
stones, with posts and storehouses and temples of the 
sun at intervals. Oh, what greater thing could be 
said of Alexander, or of any of the powerful kings 
that have ruled in the world, than that they had 
made such a road as this and conceived the works 
that were required for it! The roads constructed by 
the Romans in Spain are not to be compared with it.' 
The post houses were some four or five miles apart and 
in each were two Indians who carried messages to and 
from the next house in line, whereby the government 
was kept constantly informed of what was going on 
in all parts of its dominions. In this way messages 
could travel at the rate of nearly a hundred and fifty 
miles a day." 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

The Inca deities were the Sun and Moon. 
The Sun they regarded as God the Father 
and the Moon (believed to be the Sun-God's 
sister and wife) as the Goddess- Mother. The 
people called themselves Children of the Sun. 
The reigning Inca was at once the Chief 
Priest and absolute temporal ruler. Follow- 
ing their conception of the divine relationship, 
he could marry only his sister of the full blood 
and only their eldest son could inherit the 
throne. If no son was born of this first in- 
cestuous marriage, or if he died and no other 
was born, the Inca married the next sister, 
and so on until there was one capable of in- 
heriting. But there were morganatic mar- 
riages, as a result of which each of the reign- 
ing Incas left numerous sons and daughters, 
whose descendants constituted a privileged 
class, and in the course of ages the throne 
came to be surrounded by thousands of men 
of the royal blood who were devoted from 
their birth to warfare, learning, and state- 
craft. A subject, however, could have more 
than one wife only by favor of the Inca. The 
government, though exercised in a kindly 
spirit, as we are told by the ancient chron- 
iclers, was in form a military despotism. 

50 



HISTORICAL SKETCH 

There was no money or other medium of 
exchange; gold and silver were used only for 
purposes of adornment; such trade as there 
was, was by barter. Every man was obliged 
to work for the common good at some form of 
industry or occupation suitable to his strength 
and age and, if able, to take his turn at the 
maintenance and extension of the irrigation 
systems, which in that way were brought to 
such a state of perfection that modern Peru 
still lives on the half-ruined fragments of 
their canals and conduits and reservoirs. 
Hardly a spot of arable soil was left uncul- 
tivated. Whole mountains were terraced for 
thousands of feet up their sides. 

Private ownership in land did not exist; it 
belonged to the communes. The custom was 
to divide it into tracts, each large enough to 
support a family, and parcel it out; for every 
child born there was an additional allotment, 
and, at intervals, a general revision and redis- 
tribution. The produce was divided into three 
parts: one for the Inca and his establishment, 
one for the priesthood, and one for the com- 
mune. When one section of the country was 
impoverished by war or some other casualty, 
its needs were supplied by assessments levied 

51 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

on the others. The occupations of the women, 
both in town and country, were essentially 
domestic. Some were brought up from child- 
hood and specially educated to serve in the 
religious rites and in the household of the 
reigning Inca. These were known as Virgins 
of the Sun. 

The capital, Cuzco, was located in a valley 
about two hundred miles northwest of Lake 
Titicaca and at a lower elevation, yet still 
more than two miles up above the level of the 
sea. A colossal, massive-walled citadel loomed 
over it from the heights of Sacsahuaman 
above the town. Strong walls and towers 
inclosed it on every side. In its midst was 
a great square, from which started the re- 
markable roads leading to the four corners 
of the empire, referred to by Hawthorne. 
One whole side was occupied by the tem- 
ple, and near by were the dwellings of the 
priests and the palaces of the Inca and 
the Virgins of the Sun. This sacred space 
was a citadel in itself, protected by five heavy 
walls. 

Describing the temple, the historian of 
the conquest, Garcilaso de la Vega (and 
there was no one better qualified to write on 

52 



HISTORICAL SKETCH 

the subject, for he was himself, on the mater- 
nal side, a grandson of one of the last of the 
Inca kings), says that "All the four walls 
were covered from roof to floor with plates 
and slabs of gold. In the side, where we 
should place the altar, they placed a figure 
of the Sun, made of a plate of gold of a 
thickness double that of the other plates 
which covered the walls. The figure was 
made with a circular face and rays of fire 
issuing from it, all of one piece, just as the 
sun is represented by painters. It was so 
large as to occupy one side of the temple 
from one wall to the other." Even the door- 
posts were of gold. One door, encased in 
silver, led to a hall dedicated to the Moon- 
Goddess, where the images and furnishings 
were all of silver, as were also the decorations 
of the mummies of the Incas' wives. 

"The walls of their palaces," Markham 
says, "were built of stone, of a dark slate 
color, with recesses and doors at certain in- 
tervals, the sides of the doors approaching 
each other" (narrowing toward the top) "and 
supporting huge stone lintels. The side walls 
were pierced with small square windows, as 
in the ruins of Manco Capac's palace, and the 

53 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

roofs were thatched with the ycha, or long 
grass of the Andes. The interior consisted of 
several spacious halls, with smaller rooms 
opening into them, and the interior walls were 
adorned with golden animals and flowers, 
executed with much skill and taste. Mirrors 
of a hard stone, highly polished, hung on 
stone pegs, while in the numerous recesses 
were utensils and conopas (household gods) 
of gold and silver, fantastically designed. 
The couches were of vicuna cloth of the soft- 
est and finest texture." 

Of the palaces of the Incas, Francisco Lo- 
pez de Gomara tells us that "all the service 
of their house, table and kitchen, was of gold 
and silver, or at least of silver and copper. 
The Inca had in his chamber hollow statues 
of gold, which appeared like giants, and oth- 
ers naturally imitated from animals, birds, 
and trees, from plants produced by the land 
and from such fish as are yielded by the 
waters of the kingdom. He also had ropes, 
baskets and hampers of gold and silver and 
piles of golden sticks to imitate fuel prepared 
for burning. In short, there was nothing 
that his territory produced that he had not got 
imitated in gold." 

54 



HISTORICAL SKETCH 

Cieza de Leon says of the magnificence 
of the harvest festivals celebrated in the 
great plaza of the temple: "We hold it 
to be very certain that neither in Jeru- 
salem, nor in Rome, nor in Persia, nor 
in any other part of the world, was such 
wealth of gold and silver and precious stones 
collected together." In his later years, while 
living in Spain, Garcilaso de la Vega, who 
had been just as enthusiastic in his descrip- 
tion, and seemed to fear that he might be 
suspected of romancing, took occasion to 
write that "this is not hard for those to be- 
lieve who have since seen so much gold and 
silver arrive here from that land. In the 
year 1595 alone, within the space of eight 
months, thirty-five millions of gold and silver 
crossed the bar of San Lucar in three car- 
goes." 

"Many generations of culture and Inca 
rule had produced men of a very different 
physical type," Markham tells us, "from the 
Peruvian Indian of to-day. We see the Incas 
in the pictures at the church of Santa Ana 
at Cuzco," he continues. 

"The color of the skin was many shades lighter 
than that of the downtrodden descendants of their 

55 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

subjects. The forehead was high, the nose slightly 
aquiline, the chin and mouth firm, the whole face 
majestic, refined, and intellectual. The hair was 
gracefully arranged, and around the head was the 
llantu, the sign of sovereignty. The llantu appears 
to have been a short piece of red fringe on the fore- 
head, fastened around the head by two bands. It 
was habitually worn, but, when praying, the Inca 
took it off and put it on the ground beside him. 
The ceremonial headdress was the mascapaycha, a 
golden semicircular miter on the forehead, to which 
the llantu was fastened. Bright colored feathers 
were fixed on the sides and the plume" (of black 
and white falcon feathers, he says in another place) 
"rose over the summit. Long golden eardrops came 
down to the shoulders. The tunic and mantel varied 
in color and were made of the finest vicuna wool. On 
the breast the Incas wore a golden semicircular breast- 
plate, representing the sun, with a border of signs 
for the months. 

"The later Incas wore a very rich kind of brocade, 
in bands sewn together, forming a wide belt. The 
bands were in squares, each with an ornament. The 
material was called tocapu. Some of the Incas had 
the whole tunic of tocapu. The breeches were black 
and in loose plaits at the knees. The usutas, or 
sandals, were of white wool. The Inca clad for war 
had a large square shield of wood or leather. There 
was a loop of leather at the back to pass the arm 
through. In one hand was a wooden staff, about two 
feet long, with a bronze star, of six or eight points, 
fastened at one end — a most formidable warclub. 
In the other hand was a long staff with a battle axe 
fixed at one end. The Ccoya, or Queen, wore the 

56 



HISTORICAL SKETCH 

lliclla or mantle fastened across the chest by a very 
large golden topu or pin, with head elaborately 
carved with ornaments and figures. The lliclla or 
mantle and acsu or skirt varied as regards color. 
The head was adorned with golden circlets and 
flowers. . . . The nobles wore headdresses of egret 
feathers and gold breastplates over their tunics. The 
princesses wore long mantles of various colors, and 
the Virgins of the Sun long white mantles, secured 
across the bosom by large gold pins." 

Mozans, writing of the spot they held most 
sacred of all, says: 

"It would be difficult to find any place in the world 
richer in legends and traditions than is Lake Titicaca. 
Every cove and inlet, every rock and island has its 
myth, and many of these places were held in special 
veneration by the Incas for long generations. This 
was especially true of two islands — Titicaca, sacred 
to the Sun, and Coati, sacred to the Moon, the Sun's 
sister. What a fascination there was about these 
two islands! Beholding the cradle and sanctuary of 
Inca civilization, it was easy to fancy oneself a spec- 
tator of one of those long processions of reed balsas" 
(boats) "conveying the children of the Sun from 
the mainland to the sacred islands of their race, where 
were the rich temples dedicated to their Sun-Father 
and Moon-Mother. Adorned with gorgeous trap- 
pings of gold and silver — royal colors — the Inca's 
barge, manned by stalwart young oarsmen, specially 
selected for this service, led the way. Immediately 
following the Sphinxlike Inca came the members of 
his court arrayed in gaudy vesture. Next to them 

57 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

were the ministers of the temple and the officers of the 
army, gleaming in barbaric attire. The rear of the 
procession was made up of the humble tillers of the 
soil, who had gathered from all parts to greet their 
idolized ruler and to swell the number of worshipers 
congregated about the effigies of the Sun and Moon, 
or in front of the sacred rock decked with richest 
tissues and plates of burnished silver and gold. . . . 
"In these temples and palaces, according to the 
old chroniclers, were immense treasures, rivaling those 
in the temples of Cuzco. The riches in the temple of 
the Sun were especially great, for 'here,' writes Gar- 
cilaso, 'all the vassals of the Inca offered up much 
gold and silver and precious stones every year, as 
a token of gratitude to the Sun for the two acts 
of grace that had taken place on that spot. This 
temple had the same service as that of Cuzco. There 
was said to be such quantity of gold and silver heaped 
up in the island, besides what was worked for the use 
of the temple, that the stories of the Indians con- 
cerning it are more wonderful than credible. Father 
Bias Valera, one of the earliest Spanish chroniclers, 
says that the Indian colonists, called Mitimaes, who 
lived in Copocabana, declared that the quantity of 
gold and silver heaped up as offerings was so great 
that another temple might have been made of it, from 
the foundations to the roof, without using any other 
materials. But as soon as the Indians heard of the 
invasion of the country by the Spaniards, and that 
they were seizing all the treasure they could find, they 
threw the whole of it into the great lake.' " 



58 



HISTORICAL SKETCH 



VII 



Fortunately for Pizarro, at the time he 
made his appearance on the scene, it hap- 
pened that these people were either still en- 
gaged in or had only just terminated a civil 
war that had been brought on by an attempt 
of Huascar, the then reigning Inca, to im- 
pose his will on his half-brother, Atahualpa, 
a rebellious vassal. It appears that Huas- 
car's father, the Inca Huayna Capac, hav- 
ing completed the subjugation of the Car as 
and their brave allies in Ecuador, had found 
it necessary to remain in Quito nearly all the 
rest of his life, to keep the inhabitants in 
subjection and suppress revolts that fre- 
quently occurred. As a political move, per- 
haps, he had married the daughter and heiress 
of the defeated Shiri and by her had had a 
son. This was Atahualpa. As he, too, had 
continued to live in Quito, he had come to be 
regarded rather as a scion of the ancient 
Shiri dynasty than as a prince of an alien 
conquering house. 

And so when in 1525 Huayna Capac died, 
he left this northern kingdom to Atahualpa 
and only the southern to Huascar, his eldest 

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THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

son of the full Inca blood, born of his sister- 
wife; but, to preserve some sort of unity in 
the empire, he commanded that Huascar, as 
the only legitimate heir, should be paramount. 
Huascar, nevertheless, had declined to ac- 
quiesce in any such virtual division of do- 
minions that he regarded as his by right of 
succession, and at the first opportunity had 
quarreled with Atahualpa and invaded the 
territory apportioned to him. In the battles 
that followed Atahualpa's forces had been 
uniformly victorious, for, always superior in 
prowess to the now more effete soldiery that 
had defeated them in their former less organ- 
ized state, years of Inca rule had taught these 
northerners how to make better avail of their 
energy and courage. Suffering enormous 
losses in every engagement, the forces of 
Huascar had been driven farther and farther 
south, until at last, in spite of reinforcements 
which, it is said, brought his army up to fully 
seventy thousand, he was beaten before the 
walls of his capital and made prisoner. 

As soon as his capture had become known, 
what was left of his army had dispersed, the 
city had surrendered, and Atahualpa, if we 
are to believe the chroniclers, had taken a ter- 

CO 



HISTORICAL SKETCH 

rible revenge, first causing all Huascar's sub- 
jects that were of royal blood, and who 
could be found, to be put to death, and 
afterward the captured officers who had 
fought for him. His cruelty, Garcilaso 
de la Vega tells us, "was greater than that 
of the Turks. Not content with the blood of 
his own two hundred brothers, the sons of the 
great Huayna Capac, he passed on to drink 
that of his uncles, nephews, and other rela- 
tions, so that none of the blood royal might 
escape, whether legitimate or not. They were 
all murdered in different ways. ... He 
ordered all the women and children" (of 
royal blood) "to be assembled, of whatever 
age and condition, reserving only those who 
were dedicated to the Sun in the convent of 
Cuzco. He ordered that they should be killed 
outside the city, by little and little, and by 
various cruel tortures, so that they might be 
long in dying." 

When Pizarro and his party reached 
Tumbez, Atahualpa, accompanied by a small 
army, was at the baths near Cajamarca, a 
town on the Peruvian plateau not far from 
the Ecuadorian boundary. It was to him 
there that the report came that strangers had 

61 



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landed — strangers of a different color, who 
had long hair on their chins and wore strange 
clothing and armor, who had weapons differ- 
ent from any that had been seen in the land 
and bestrode terrible monsters that carried 
them over the ground with incredible speed. 
The effect of such startling news may be im- 
agined. Pizarro, however, after having fully 
informed himself respecting the political 
status of affairs, thought he saw an opportu- 
nity to further his ends by diplomacy and 
protested that his mission was a friendly one. 
It would seem that Atahualpa must have 
realized that the strangers were far more for- 
midable than was indicated by their mere 
number, for he sent his brother Titu to wel- 
come them and make inquiries as to their de- 
sires and the purpose of their visit. By him 
Pizarro, having first expressed his thanks, 
sent a message to the effect that he would go 
at once to Cajamarca and call on Atahualpa 
in person. What then occurred is thus related 
by Dawson: 

"On receiving Pizarro's answer to his friendly mes- 
sage, Atahualpa resolved to await the promised visit, 
apparently suspecting no evil. The audacious Span- 
iard had, however, conceived the design of capturing 

62 



HISTORICAL SKETCH 

the victorious claimant of the throne of the Incas, 
well knowing that in its actual distracted condition 
the country would be left without a center about 
which it could rally. Open war, no matter how over- 
whelming his first victory might be, could hardly be 
ultimately successful. Atahualpa, once safe at Cuzco 
or Quito, and surrounded by the disciplined soldiers 
who had overthrown Huascar, a defensive campaign 
might be undertaken in which Pizarro would find 
every step toward either capital bitterly disputed. 
Hundreds of thousands of Peruvians pouring up from 
the numberless provinces of the empire would be 
thrown in a never ceasing succession of armies against 
the little band of Spaniards and the latter would 
infallibly be driven back to the coast by starvation 
and fatigue, if not by defeat in the field. 

"Apparently foolhardy, in fact Pizarro's plan of- 
fered the only chance of success. Never dreaming 
that such a step was in contemplation, Atahualpa took 
no precautions. Leaving fifty-five men at the little 
port of San Miguel in the Paita valley to secure his 
retreat, Pizarro marched south with one hundred 
and two foot soldiers, sixty-two horses, and two small 
cannon, two hundred miles along the coast plain to 
a point opposite Cajamarca, and ascended along an 
Inca military road, meeting a friendly reception from 
the wondering natives, and supplied with provisions 
by Atahualpa's orders. On the 15th of September, 
1532, he entered Cajamarca. He found an open 
square in the middle of the town, surrounded by walls 
and solid stone buildings, which he received permission 
to occupy as quarters. From his camp outside Ata- 
hualpa sent word that on the following day he would 
enter the town in state and receive the Spaniards. 

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"Marvelous good fortune favored Pizarro's designs. 
The Indians had furnished a trap all ready made, and 
now Atahualpa deliberately walked into it. On the 
morning of the 16th the Indian army broke camp and 
marched to Caj amarca, followed by the Emperor, who 
was borne in a litter and surrounded by his personal 
attendants, the great chiefs and the nobles belonging 
to his own lineage." (Those belonging to Huascar's 
he had caused to be killed.) "At sunset he entered 
the square, accompanied only by these unarmed at- 
tendants and found Pizarro and a few Spaniards 
awaiting him. The rest were hidden in the houses 
around the square with their horses saddled, their 
breastplates on, and musketry and cannon ready 
charged. From among the group that surrounded 
Pizarro, stepped forward Friar Valverde and ap- 
proached the Inca monarch, who, reclining in a litter 
raised high above the crowd on the shoulders of his 
attendants, waited with dignity to hear what these 
strangers had to say. 

"The priest advanced with a cross in one hand and 
a Bible in the other and began a harangue which, 
clumsily translated by an Indian boy, the Inca hardly 
understood. But in a few moments he realized that 
this uncouth j argon was meant to convey an arrogant 
demand that he acknowledge himself a vassal of 
Charles V and submit to baptism. With haughty 
surprise, he threw down the book Valverde tried to 
force into his hand. The priest shouted: 'Fall on, 
Castilians — I absolve you ! ' and into the helpless 
crowd burst a murderous fire from the doors of the 
houses all around. Aghast and bewildered by this 
display of powers which to them seemed necromantic, 
the survivors nevertheless stood manfully to the at- 

64 



HISTORICAL SKETCH 

tack of the mail-clad horsemen who rode into the 
huddled masses, ferociously slashing and slaughtering. 
The Indians strove desperately to drag the Spaniards 
from the horses with their naked hands and interposed 
a living wall of human flesh between the murderers 
and their beloved sovereign. At length Pizarro's own 
hands snatched Atahualpa from the litter. The 
Indian soldiers outside, hearing the firearms and the 
noise of the struggle, tried to force their way into 
the square, but the Spanish musketry and cannon 
mowed them down by hundreds and they fled before 
the charges of the cavalry, dispersing in the twilight." 

Atahualpa was then confined in a small 
stone house adjoining the palace of the Vir- 
gins of the Sun (the latter is now a convent, 
occupied by Sisters of Charity), and every 
precaution possible under the circumstances 
was taken to prevent his rescue. Pizarro's 
next move in the conquest was to murder him. 
But, in the meanwhile, he had suggested in 
conversations with his prisoner that Huascar's 
followers would probably take advantage of 
the opportunity afforded by his capture to 
reorganize their scattered forces and make an 
effort to regain the throne; he had hinted, 
too, at the advisability of arbitration, and 
Atahualpa had taken alarm and secretly or- 
dered Huascar's execution; whereupon Pi- 
zarro had, feigned the greatest indignation 

65 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

and had contrived to frighten his victim into 
offering his famous ransom. "I will fill this 
room with gold," he said, "as high as I can 
reach, if only you will liberate me." (The 
room in which he was confined was 32 feet 
9 inches long, 20 feet 9 inches wide, and 10 
feet 9 inches high.) Pizarro accepted, a truce 
was agreed upon, Atahualpa ordered all 
preparations for war on the Spaniards to be 
suspended, and arranged for the collection of 
the gold. When the amount stipulated for 
was at last assembled, it was found to have 
a value equivalent to more than seventeen 
millions of dollars in our currency. Some 
historians say much more. Dawson, for in- 
stance, says it was more than twenty-two 
millions. One-fifth was sent to the royal 
treasury in Spain and the rest was divided 
among the adventurers. The share of the 
private soldiers even was large enough to 
make each of them rich for life. 

Nevertheless, Pizarro had not performed 
his part of the agreement by setting his pris- 
oner at liberty. Whether or not he had ever 
intended to can only be conjectured. It is 
clear only that, even if he did enter into the 
agreement in bad faith, as was charged by the 

66 



HISTORICAL SKETCH 

chroniclers, he was afterward confronted by 
a problem which, in the opinion of recent 
writers, justified his perfidious behavior. 
Quizquiz, the general whose ability had en- 
abled Atahualpa so often to defeat his late 
rival, was known to have taken the field with 
a large body of troops. Could a man such as 
Atahualpa had proven himself to be, re- 
leased and at the head of a great army once 
more, be expected to permit these foreigners, 
who had so treacherously captured him and 
slain his attendants while on a friendly visit, 
to depart in peace with their loot? It did not 
seem likely. On the other hand, retreat 
through a then hostile country with the pris- 
oner still in custody was out of the question, 
and, if he should continue to hold him in Ca- 
jamarca, Quizquiz, who had only been await- 
ing the word, would no longer hesitate to 
attack. 

No; a bold coup de main of some sort was 
imperative. If Atahualpa could be gotten rid 
of altogether, for instance, there was a chance, 
in the confusion that must follow, to reach 
Cuzco and form an alliance with the par- 
tisans of the murdered Inca, with a view to 
ousting the usurper's party and restoring the 

67 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

throne to the legitimate line. Such a chance 
had only to exist to be appreciated by one so 
clear-sighted and audacious as Pizarro. It 
was his life and his friends' — and, of course, 
the Indian treasure — against only the life of 
Atahualpa, and the prisoner's fate was sealed. 
There was a mock trial, wherein he was con- 
victed of the murder of Huascar, conspiracy 
against the Spaniards, and other high crimes 
and misdemeanors, and then he was strangled 
to death in the public square — strangled 
rather than burned, says Hawthorne, as an 
act of grace, in consideration of his having 
professed at the last the Christian faith. 

Some weeks before this, Almagro had 
joined the Conquistadores at Cajamarca with 
reinforcements that brought the Spanish 
force up to about five hundred. As soon as 
Atahualpa had been disposed of, the com- 
mander, with all his men, began his advance, 
by forced marches, on Cuzco, an advantageous 
position near which he was fortunate enough 
to secure without having encountered Quiz- 
quiz, though some of the cavalry under De 
Soto were engaged by a detachment on the 
way; all efforts to interpose the main body 
of the Indian army were frustrated by their 

68 



HISTORICAL SKETCH 

speed. However, though "the true heir to 
the crown was a second son of Huayna Capac, 
named Manco, a legitimate brother of the 
unfortunate Huascar," says Prescott, "Pi- 
zarro had too little knowledge of the dispo- 
sition of this prince and he made no scruple 
to prefer Toparca, a young brother of Ata- 
hualpa and to present him to the Indian 
nobles as their future Inca." So, to make 
assurance doubly sure, he did not, before he 
set out, announce his purpose of driving off 
the enemies of the rightful heir, but took the 
boy with him, "attended by a numerous 
retinue of vassals and moving in as much 
state and ceremony as if in possession of regal 
power." Before they reached Cuzco, much 
to Pizarro's chagrin, the boy fell sick and 
died. 

But the misfortune was soon repaired, for, 
sure enough, when the adventurers went into 
camp outside the walls of the capital, no less 
a personage than Manco Capac II himself 
called on the commander in person and pro- 
posed the hoped-for alliance; and, just a year 
from the day he had taken Cajamarca, he 
entered Cuzco as the protector of the real 
Inca, whose coronation he permitted to be 

69 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

celebrated with all the splendor of the ancient 
rites. The Indians of central Peru hailed 
him as their deliverer from the tyranny of the 
usurper. Manco Capac, for his part, soon 
assembled a great army, and, with the help of 
some of the Spaniards, decisively defeated 
Quizquiz and drove him back to Ecuador. 



VIII 

But there was a sad awakening in store for 
the Inca on his return from that victorious 
campaign. He had permitted these allies of 
his — rapacious, recklessly daring as they were, 
and unscrupulous, cruel, and fanatical in their 
attitude toward infidels — to obtain a foothold 
in the very capital of the empire. And what 
manner of man was it of whom the great 
body of his subjects was made up? He was 
brave, yes — physically; he could fight, and 
conquer, too, when ably led, but also he was 
morally utterly irresponsible, "a slave," as 
Mozans puts it, "utterly devoid of energy 
and individual initiative," accustomed to look 
to the ruling class for guidance, to regard the 
Inca "with superstitious awe, as a being of a 
superior order." Centuries of despotic gov- 

70 



HISTORICAL SKETCH 

ernment, rigid religious ritual, communal 
ownership of property, and labor, not for 
himself but for the commonwealth, had 
robbed him of all ambition and instilled into 
him the habit of accepting with patient res- 
ignation whatever fate might decree. 

And now, after all these centuries of com- 
plaisance, what must have been his mental at- 
titude at the end of such a succession of 
events ? First, the late legitimate Inca Huas- 
car, omnipotent as he was supposed to have 
been, directly descended from the Sun- God 
and Moon-Mother themselves, had been over- 
thrown and put to death by an illegitimate 
rival. Then that rival, also of the Inca blood, 
had in his turn been captured in the very face 
of his army, and put to death despite another 
and much greater army, by a little band of 
mysterious strangers, against whose mail-clad 
bodies the battle-axes and spears of the In- 
dians had been powerless — strangers who 
had made fierce, "fleet-footed monsters" 
(horses) subservient to their will and who 
carried terrible weapons that went off with a 
noise like thunder and vomited fire and 
smoke, and with which they killed their ene- 
mies before they could come near enough to 

71 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

get in a blow. Had not these invincible 
strangers, and apparently by supernatural 
means, overcome even the legitimate Inca's 
conqueror? Surely, then, they must be some 
still superior order of beings, sent by the Sun- 
God to accomplish some wonderful purpose. 
Therefore they must be obeyed. Pizarro 
himself could not have created a people more 
suited to the carrying out of his designs had 
he had the power. 

Probably realizing this, he promptly aban- 
doned all subterfuge. As a consideration for 
the help he had been given in the campaign 
against Quizquiz, the Inca had been induced 
by stress of circumstances to acknowledge the 
supremacy of the King of Spain. It was 
only as a matter of form, he had been led to 
believe, but Pizarro now exacted the fullest 
compliance. As Adelantado by appointment 
of the overlord, he established a municipal 
council to govern the city, transformed the 
great temple into a church, made use of cer- 
tain of the public buildings as officers' quar- 
ters and barracks for the soldiers, seized all 
the treasure that was to be found — even the 
private dwellings and tombs were searched 
and stripped of it — and required the authori- 

72 



HISTORICAL SKETCH 

ties to supply troops and carriers to accom- 
pany the exploring parties he sent out. "Pi- 
zarro, on entering Cuzco, had issued an order 
forbidding any soldier to offer violence to the 
dwellings of the inhabitants," says Prescott: 

"But the palaces were numerous and the troops 
lost no time in plundering them of their contents as 
well as in despoiling the religious edifices. The in- 
terior decorations supplied them with considerable 
booty. They stripped off the jewels and rich orna- 
ments that garnished the royal mummies in the 
temple of Coricancha. Indignant at the conceal- 
ment of their treasures, they put the inhabitants, in 
some instances, to the torture and endeavored to 
extort from them a confession of their hiding places. 
They invaded the repose of the sepulchers, in which 
the Peruvians often deposited their valuable effects, 
and compelled the grave to give up its dead. No 
place was left unexplored by the rapacious conquerors, 
and they occasionally stumbled on a mine of wealth 
that rewarded their labors. In a cavern near the city 
they found a number of vases, richly embossed with 
figures of serpents, locusts, and other animals. Among 
the spoils were four golden llamas and ten or twelve 
statues of women, as large as life, some of gold, others 
of silver, 'which merely to see,' says one of the con- 
querors, with some naivete, 'was truly a great satis- 
faction.' . . . The magazines were stored with curi- 
ous commodities — richly tinted robes of cotton and 
feather work, gold sandals and slippers of the same 
material, for the women, and dresses composed en- 
tirely of beads of gold.' ... In one place, for 

73 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

example, they met with ten planks or bars of solid 
silver, each piece twenty feet in length, one foot 
in breadth, and two or three inches thick. They were 
intended to decorate the dwelling of an Inca noble. 
. . . The amount of booty is stated variously by 
those present at the division of it. According to 
some, it considerably exceeded the ransom of Ata- 
hualpa." 

Fully appreciating also the desirability of 
establishing a capital of his own at some 
strategic point much more easily accessible 
from Panama, Pizarro made a careful study 
of routes and possible sites and finally chose 
one beside the river Rimac, on a fertile, ele- 
vated plain near the base of the Cordillera, 
only about three leagues from one of the best 
harbors on the coast, and at the point where 
the Inca military road began its ascent to the 
plateau. Here, only about a year after he 
entered Cuzco, he founded La Ciudad de los 
Reyes (the City of the Kings), so named in 
honor of the Three Kings or Wise Men of the 
East, because their feast day, Epiphany, oc- 
curred at that season of the year. Soon it be- 
came known as Lima. "Before the erection of 
a single house was permitted," he had a plan 
drawn up, Mozans tells us, providing for 
large squares and streets unusually wide, "and 

74 



HISTORICAL SKETCH 

in making this plan he had in view, not the 
small number (only sixty-nine) of those who 
were then prepared to make their homes 
there, but the future greatness of 'The Em- 
pire City of the New World.' Moreover, 
as the city had to be in God and for God and 
in His name — en Dios y por Dios y en su 
nombre — to use his own words, work was 
first begun on the church, which was named 
Nuestra Senora de la Asuncion. The first 
stone and the first pieces of timber were put 
in place by the hands of the Adelantado him- 
self, who wished, like the other Conquista- 
dores, to emphasize his zeal for religion and 
his devotion to La Santissima Virgen, Madre 
de Dios" 

In the meanwhile his brother Hernando 
had gone to Spain with the King's fifth of 
the loot, and on the way had spread the 
news. Once more all was excitement on the 
Isthmus. It was not long before Pizarro's 
forces were augmented by three or four 
hundred soldiers that had been led into 
Ecuador by Pedro de Alvarado, Governor of 
Guatemala, who consented to abandon his 
expedition when persuaded by Almagro, who 
went at once to meet him, that he was tres- 

75 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

passing on Pizarro's preserves, for which act 
of grace the Spanish King added the province 
of Honduras to Alvarado's jurisdiction, and 
Almagro gave him a large sum of money ; and, 
when communication was established between 
Lima and Panama by sea, adventurers of 
every degree began to flock to the new city 
as they had before to Mexico and Central 
America. 

This enabled Almagro, with an army of 
nearly six hundred Spaniards and fifteen 
thousand Indians, the latter under the com- 
mand of one of the Inca's brothers, to make 
an excursion into Chile for purposes of ex- 
ploration, for it had been agreed that he 
should have the southern half of the territory 
they might conquer and Pizarro the northern. 
Sebastian de Benalcazar, another of Pizarro's 
lieutenants, went to Ecuador with a force of 
two hundred Spaniards and a large Indian 
contingent and completed the defeat of Ata- 
hualpa's adherents, took possession of Quito 
and founded the city of Guayaquil at the 
mouth of the Guayas River, which provided 
for that country, too, independent access from 
the sea. 

Also by this time any illusions the Inca 
76 




CATHEDRAL AT LIMA, BUILT BY PIZARRO. 



HISTORICAL SKETCH 

may have had as to the continuance of the 
ancient dynasty under the protection of the 
Spaniards were dispelled. By this time even 
his complaisant subjects must have discovered 
that these superhuman deliverers, as they had 
thought them, were mere men — or else, if they 
were indeed a different order of beings, that 
order, they must have concluded, was infernal 
rather than divine. The sovereignty of the 
Inca had become little more than a fiction. 
As in the islands of the Caribbean and else- 
where, the fairest lands in the country had 
been divided into vast estates and great num- 
bers of natives practically reduced to slav- 
ery and set to work them for the benefit of 
their new masters. With respect to their 
treatment in general, though Pizarro him- 
self seems to have been guilty of few acts 
of wanton cruelty, he either could not, or 
did not if he could, restrain the oppression 
of them by his followers. If their behavior 
was not quite as atrocious as that of other 
Spaniards toward the tribes in the north, 
there was an utter lack of considerateness in 
it and disregard of their property and rights 
that galled even them. 

Roused at last, the Inca took advantage 
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THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

of the opportunity afforded by the scatter- 
ing of the Spanish force and made his escape 
from Cuzco, where Hernando Pizarro and 
his younger brothers Juan and Gonzalo were 
in command, and, finding his subjects ripe for 
revolt, had no difficulty in raising two large 
armies. One he sent against the Adelantado, 
who was in Lima; with the other he returned 
to Cuzco and took the great citadel of 
Sacsahuaman, overlooking the town, and be- 
gan a siege that was to last more than six 
months, and during which Juan Pizarro was 
killed in an attempt to recapture the citadel. 
The army that went to the coast was am- 
bushed and defeated by the Spaniards and 
their local adherents before ever it reached 
Lima. All that what was left of it could 
do was to prevent the sending of reinforce- 
ments to Cuzco despite the desperate straits 
to which the Spanish force there was reduced. 
Pizarro was himself compelled to send to 
the Isthmus for help. Just before it was too 
late, however, he managed to get away two 
hundred and fifty men to the relief of his 
brothers, and just at that juncture also, Al- 
magro, on his way back from Chile, turned 
up with his followers, and, caught between 

78 



HISTORICAL SKETCH 

Cuzco and these two new detachments of the 
enemy, the Inca was overwhelmed and con- 
cluded to retire into the wild region of Vilca- 
bamba, where the Spaniards could not follow 
with any hope of success, and there held out 
for some years. But with his retreat all that 
remained of the Inca dominion came to an 
end. There were a few other attempts, but 
neither he nor his descendants ever succeeded 
in recovering the throne. 

As for Almagro, he had had a frightful 
experience during his excursion into Chile 
and had met with nothing but disappointment 
and disaster. The route unwittingly chosen 
had been over the bleak Bolivian plateaux 
and across the mountains where the Cordillera 
reaches its highest, at a season when the 
passes are buried in snow and swept by 
furious storms, and his men had perished 
by thousands, some of the best of his Span- 
iards among the number. When he had at 
last made his way to the beautiful central val- 
ley between the Cordillera and the coast range 
and down to the river Maule, he had found 
nothing of the opulence of Peru, but only 
a poor but brave, warlike people who in a 
fierce battle had succeeded in checking his 

79 



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advance. And now, disgusted with this 
country of his to the south, he returned and 
made claim to Cuzco as being within his half 
of the conquered territory and demanded of 
the Pizarros its surrender. On their refusal, 
he promptly carried it by assault, made 
Hernando and Gonzalo his prisoners, and 
went out to meet the troops that had been 
sent to their relief by the Adelantado and 
defeated them. 

And then, as Hawthorne puts it, "had he 
cut off the heads of both of these gentlemen 
on the spot, he would have saved himself 
years of struggle, with a death on the scaffold 
at the end of them. But he was not of the 
right fiber for the work that was laid upon 
him; he was not what the English would call 
'thorough' " ; he temporized and listened to 
his wily associate. "Civil disturbances went 
on for eleven years," continues Hawthorne, 
" 'in the course of which,' as Professor Fiske 
remarks, 'all the principal actors were swept 
off the stage as in some cheap blood-and- 
thunder tragedy. It is not worth while to 
recount the petty incidents of the struggle — 
how Almagro was at one moment ready to 
submit to arbitration and the next refused 

80 



HISTORICAL SKETCH 

to abide by the decision; how Hernando was 
set at liberty and Gonzalo escaped; how Al- 
magro's able lieutenant, Rodrigo de Orgonez, 
won a victory over Pizarro's men at Abancay 
but was totally defeated by Hernando Pi- 
zarro at Las Salinas and perished on the field; 
how at last Hernando had Almagro tried for 
sedition and summarily executed. On which 
side was the more violence and treachery it 
would be hard to say. Indeed, as Sir Arthur 
Helps observes, "in this melancholy struggle 
it is difficult to find anybody whom the reader 
can sympathize much with." ' " 

Then, once more Francisco Pizarro entered 
Cuzco in triumph, this time wearing an 
ermine robe that had been presented to him 
by Hernando Cortes, and again he devoted 
himself to organizing his government and 
extending the Spanish dominion over the 
distant provinces. The number of his com- 
patriots had increased to eight thousand. 
Gonzalo was appointed Governor of Quito, 
from whence he strayed to make a disastrous 
journey down the eastern slope of the Andes 
in search of the mythical Eldorado, which he 
did not find, but which resulted in the dis- 
covery of and voyage down the Amazon, from 

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the mountains to the sea, by Francisco de 
Orellana, his second in command. Hernando 
went to Bolivia to search for the mines from 
which the Incas were supposed to have gotten 
their wealth, a labor that was rewarded by the 
discovery of Potosi, which has yielded more 
than two billions of ounces of silver — and 
silver and gold were of equal value in Europe 
in those days. Pedro de Valdivia undertook 
the conquest of Chile and Alonso de Al- 
varado, one of the most generous and hu- 
mane of the Conquistadores, that of the 
mountains of northern Peru. The Adelan- 
tado himself traveled over most of the empire, 
founding cities at strategic points in the more 
populous and fertile valleys, among them 
Arequipa, and here in Bolivia as in the 
country about Cuzco he divided the most de- 
sirable of the lands into repartimientos and 
apportioned them among his favorites. 

In the meanwhile Almagro's adherents, 
helpless and impoverished, were burning with 
envy of their more fortunate comrades, who 
were, by favor of the successful rival, rapidly 
enriching themselves with Indian tribute and 
gold and silver taken from the mines. At 
last, unable to stand it, they sent the news 

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HISTORICAL SKETCH 

of their leader's illegal execution to Spain, 
with a demand for justice against the Pi- 
zarros. The rest of the story is told by Daw- 
son as follows: 

"The Spanish government was not unwilling to 
secure a selfish advantage from the disputes among 
the original conquerors and sent out Vaca de Castro 
to investigate and report. When the Royal Com- 
missioner arrived at Panama early in 1541, the latest 
news from Peru was tranquilizing. Pizarro was busily 
engaged in enlarging and beautifying Lima, in reg- 
ulating the revenue and the administration, in dis- 
tributing 'encomiendas,' and in restraining the rapac- 
ity of his Spaniards. However, Lima was full of the 
'men of Chile,' as Almagro's adherents were called, 
all bitter enemies of the Governor. They passed him 
in the street without saluting, and their attitude was 
so menacing that Pizarro received repeated warnings 
and was urged to banish them. Absolutely incapable 
of personal fear, magnanimous when his passions 
had not been aroused, he only replied : 'Poor fellows. 
They have had trouble enough. We will not molest 
them.' He even sent for Juan de la Rada — the guide, 
counselor, and guardian of the young half-breed who 
was Almagro's heir — and condescended to try to 
argue him into a better frame of mind, saying, at 
parting: 'Ask me frankly what you desire;' but the 
iron had entered too deeply into Rada's soul. He 
had already organized a conspiracy to assassinate 
Pizarro. 

"At noon, on Sunday, the 26th of June, 1541, 
Pizarro was sitting at dinner in his house with twenty 

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gentlemen, among them his half-brother Francisco 
Alcantara, and several of the most illustrious knights 
who had taken part in the conquest. The great door 
into the public square was lying wide open. The con- 
spirators, to the number of a score, had assembled 
in a house opposite. All of a sudden they rushed 
into the square fully armed and carrying their swords 
naked in their hands. A young page standing in 
front of the Governor's house saw them and ran back 
shouting: 'To arms! All the men of Chile are com- 
ing to kill the Marquis, our lord.' The guests rose 
in alarm from the table and all but half a dozen fled 
to the windows and dropped into the garden. Pizarro 
threw off his gown and snatched up a sword, while the 
valiant Francisco Chaves stepped forward through 
the ante-room to dispute the passage at the staircase. 
The ferocious crowd of murderers rushed up and laid 
him dead on the stairs. Alcantara checked them for 
a few moments with his single sword, but was soon 
forced back into the dining-room and fell pierced with 
many thrusts. The old lion shouted from the inside: 
'What shameful thing is this ! Why do you wish to 
kill me ? ' and, with a cloak wrapped round one 
arm and his sword grasped in the other hand, he 
rushed forward to meet his assassins and strike a 
blow to avenge his brother before he himself should 
fall. Only two faithful young pages remained at his 
side. Though over seventy years of age, his prac- 
ticed sword laid two of the crowd dead before he was 
surrounded. The two boys were butchered, and, in 
the melee, Pizarro received a mortal wound in his 
throat, and, falling to the floor, made the sign of the 
cross on the boards" (with his blood) "and kissed it. 
One of the ruffians had snatched up an earthen water 

84 



HISTORICAL SKETCH 

jar and with this pounded out the old man's brains 
as he lay prostrate, disdaining to ask for mercy. 

"Thus perished by the sword this great man of 
blood. The measure he had meted out to Atahualpa 
and Almagro was measured to him again. He who 
had shamelessly broken his oath times without number 
to gain his own high ends was slain by treacherous, 
cowardly assault. But his great vices should not blind 
us to his greater virtues. Courageous, indomitable, 
far-sighted, patriotic, large-minded, public-spirited, 
possessing a God-given instinct to see straight 
into the center of a problem and the energy to strike 
at the psychological moment, he was equally great 
as an explorer, a soldier, a general, a diplomatist, 
and an administrator. Even his shocking moral de- 
linquencies lose something of their turpitude when we 
consider the greatness of his aims and the baseness 
of his origin. . . . But that his real nature was 
magnanimous, generous, and truthful is proven by 
the many instances in which he forgave his enemies 
and kept his word to his serious loss, and that his 
ambition was not too sordid is shown by his self- 
sacrificing devotion to the public good during the 
later years of his life. Formed in nature's grandest 
mold, circumstances and environment had much de- 
formed his character, but the original lineaments are 
plain." 

Pizarro thus disposed of, young Almagro 
assumed the governorship and transferred his 
headquarters to Cuzco, where his father's 
party was stronger than at Lima, and the 
Royal Commissioner, appointed Governor by 

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THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

the King, sailed from Panama, got together 
an army with the help of Pizarro's friends, 
and proceeded to Guamanga, to which point 
the usurper was advancing with his forces 
from Cuzco. The battle that ensued was 
more hotly contested than any that had there- 
tofore been fought. Of the twelve hundred 
Spaniards engaged, less than five hundred 
escaped death or wounds. Almagro's troops 
were practically annihilated. Two days af- 
terward those of the Adelantado's murderers 
who had survived were executed in the public 
square and young Almagpo himself, who had 
succeeded in making his escape, was recap- 
tured and put to death. Then for the time 
being Vaca de Castro administered the office 
without further opposition. 

Before this, the great-hearted Padre Bar- 
tolome de las Casas, the Indians' indefati- 
gable champion and friend, had written his 
famous book exposing the horrors of their 
treatment and had so successfully appealed 
to the King in their behalf that it had been 
decided to abolish native slavery and grad- 
ually do away with the system of re parti- 
mientos and encomiendas (allotments of land 
and Indians) ; and, since manifestly such a 

86 



HISTORICAL SKETCH 

course would result in trouble with the Con- 
quisitadores, it seemed best to appoint a vice- 
roy who would not be subject to their in- 
fluence and invest him with absolute power. 
This dangerous office was bestowed upon 
Blasco Nunez de Vela, whose integrity, piety, 
and rigid obedience to the King had already 
gained for him high positions. Arriving in 
Peru early in 1544, he promulgated the new 
laws abolishing personal service by the In- 
dians, providing that encomiendas might not 
be sold or descend by inheritance, and, worst 
of all, that those granted to participants in 
the war between Pizarro and Almagro should 
lapse. To set the example, in his journey 
down the coast, the Viceroy sternly insisted 
that no Indian be compelled to carry a bur- 
den against his will. 

To the Spaniards this seemed an out- 
rageous violation of the natural order of 
things. The whole fabric of their fortunes 
was based on enforced Indian labor. With- 
out it how could they work their mines and 
estates or transport their goods? In the 
general dismay, armed resistance was decided 
on, and Gonzalo Pizarro was called from 
his estate in southern Bolivia and induced 

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to take the lead. He seized the artillery and 
stores at Cuzco and was soon at the head of 
some four hundred desperate men, well 
armed and provided. "The Viceroy retreated 
north beyond Quito to Popayan," says 
Dawson — 

"But, being joined by more recruits, rashly re- 
turned to the neighborhood of Quito to offer battle. 
He was defeated and killed. Pizarro went back to 
Lima, while his lieutenant, Carbajal, hunted down and 
put to death every loyalist who remained under arms 
in southern Peru. Gonzalo's administration lasted 
three years. They were golden ones to the Spanish 
adventurers. The marvelous silver mines of Potosi 
and the gold washings of southern Ecuador were dis- 
covered. Encomiendas were lavishly granted; the 
Indians were sent back to their fields ; the mining 
industry began that marvelous development which 
soon made Peru the treasure box of the world and 
Potosi the synonym for limitless wealth. But the 
dazzling sunlight of prosperity was dimmed by the 
shadow of Pizarro's scaffold slowly creeping across 
the Atlantic and down the coast. His chief lieuten- 
ants, knowing that they had sinned past forgiveness, 
urged him to declare himself King of Peru, but he 
was at once too proud and too patriotic to fling away 
his right to die a loyal Spaniard. Philip, the leaden- 
eyed, close-mouthed despot, was regent of Spain. Bit- 
terly chagrined that the stream of Peruvian gold had 
ceased to flow into the royal treasury, his vindictive 
heart had no mercy for the gallant soldier whose 
sword had helped win the riches now temporarily di- 

88 



HISTORICAL SKETCH 

verted. He selected a man after his own heart — Pedro 
de la Gasca, an ugly, deformed little priest, hypo- 
critically humble, though astute and untiring, whose 
success as an inquisitor was a guarantee that he would 
be as pitiless and cruel as even Philip could wish." 

This man, says Hawthorne, was — 

"A real diplomatist, with a tongue capable of mak- 
ing the worse appear the better reason and of winning 
support from the ranks of the enemy. He was en- 
dowed with official powers, but chiefly with brains 
and with the tongue aforesaid. His first step was 
to repeal such parts of the abolition laws as were 
hardest upon the colonists, and thereby he won their 
favor. Not until after these good news had been 
promulgated did Gasca venture to leave Panama for 
Peru. The captains of Pizarro's fleet had been 
despatched to Panama to meet and watch the new 
emissary and either stop or bribe him, as might seem 
most expedient. But allowance had not been made for 
that tongue. Gasca wagged it with such good effect 
that they thought perhaps they were not Pizarro's 
captains after all ; at all events they put their fleet at 
his disposal and to Peru he came, landing at Tumbez 
in June, 1547. . . . Captain Diego de Centeno, 
acting for Gasca, captured Cuzco, but was defeated 
in the battle of Huarina. Hereupon Pizarro pressed 
on, nothing doubting — and indeed one can hardly 
blame him for his confidence, since it lay not in human 
foresight to anticipate the magical seductiveness of 
this Gasca's conversation. The armies met, but Gasca 
did but open his mouth and Pizarro's soldiers began 
deserting by troops. The thing was inexplicable ; it 

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THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

was uncanny. We would call him a magnetic man 
nowadays, and Pizarro's men were the iron filings. 
Even those who stood by him could not be induced 
to fight. By great efforts fifteen men contrived to 
get themselves slain, and then Pizarro, losing pa- 
tience, got on his horse, rode over to Gasca's camp, 
and gave himself up." 

With his execution, Spain's conquest of 
Peru was complete. 



IX 

In 1525, at the foot of the great outlying 
mass of mountains on the peninsula that lies 
between the Gulfs of Maracaibo and Darien, 
and not far from where the Magdalena River 
empties into the Caribbean Sea, the town of 
Santa Marta had been founded — the first 
Spanish settlement in Colombia beyond the 
Isthmus. It was nothing more than a slave 
station for a time, from whence kidnaping 
parties made raids into the country round 
about and captured natives to sell to the gold 
miners in Espafiola. Real attempts at col- 
onization were not begun until Pedro de 
Heredia founded Cartagena, farther west, in 
1533; but it was from these points that the 

90 



HISTORICAL SKETCH 

explorations were undertaken that led to the 
discovery of the next great stores of gold and 
also to fresh, and this time seemingly trust- 
worthy, affirmations of the truth of the story 
told by the Indians of the Isthmus, of the 
king the Spaniards called El Dorado (the 
Gilded Man), in whose country the rivers 
were said to run over sands of silver, where 
the palaces were of gold, with doors and col- 
umns studded with precious stones and the 
king bathed in aromatic essences and covered 
his body with gold dust. 

Heredia had found that the hills south of 
Cartagena contained profitable gold washings 
and had learned from the Indians of a region 
called Zenufana back in the mountains of 
the interior where the deposits were more 
valuable still, and this story, having proven 
true, had brought about the conquest of the 
rich valley of the Cauca and the development 
of mines that have yielded hundreds of mil- 
lions in gold. The shares, even of Heredia's 
men in the first outcroppings, are declared 
by the chroniclers to have been greater than 
those of the followers of Pizarro in the ran- 
som of the Inca. And, at about the same 
time, Pizarro's enterprising lieutenant, Se- 

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THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

bastian de Benalcazar, the conqueror of Quito, 
had continued north and fought his way- 
through the warlike, semi-civilized tribes that 
inhabited the high plateaux around Pasto to 
the lower country now known as Popayan, 
where the Cauca gathers its headwaters, and, 
in rapid succession, had overcome the tribes 
that opposed his progress until he had met 
the expedition from Cartagena, after which 
he had gone back to Peru. 

His purpose was to return and undertake 
the conquest of the region of the upper Mag- 
dalena and the rich Indian communities on 
the broad table-land on top of the eastern 
Cordillera; but, before he could set out, an 
expedition from Santa Marta, under the 
command of the gallant young Gonzalo Jim- 
inez de Quesada — ranked by many as the 
greatest of the Conquistadores after Cortes 
and Pizarro — had forestalled him. Quesada 
too had heard the stories of El Dorado and 
had been directed to a lake called Guatavita, 
two miles high in the mountains, that was 
supposed to be in the country over which El 
Dorado ruled, and also the dwelling place of 
a powerful goddess to whom the people of- 
fered jewels and gold by throwing them in 

92 



HISTORICAL SKETCH 

the water. "They had a legend," says Haw- 
thorne — 

"To the effect that the Goddess of the Lake had 
been the wife of a former chief who had thrown her- 
self into the lake to escape a whipping, and, like the 
maidens of Greek mythology, had been made one of 
the immortals. . Pilgrims came from afar to add their 
offerings of gold and emeralds to the divinity. At 
every installation of a chief there was an imposing 
ceremony. First marched a squad of naked men 
painted with red ocher, as mourners, then men adorned 
with gold and emeralds, with feather headdresses, 
then warriors in jaguar skins. These shouted and 
made an uproar on horns, pipes, and conch shells. 
Black-robed priests accompanied the procession, with 
white crosses on their breasts, and in the rear came 
the nobles, bearing the new chief on a barrow hung 
with gold disks. He was naked, his body rendered 
sticky with resinous gums and then smeared over with 
gold dust. Having reached the shore of the lake, 
he got on a barge and was rowed to the center, where 
he dived into the water and washed off his gold, 
while the assemblage on the shore shouted with joy 
and flung their offerings into the transparent abode 
of the Goddess." 



This, it seems, had once been true, but, 
although the Indians of the lowlands may 
not have known it, the custom had ceased to 
exist long before the coming of the Span- 
iards. Many of the bravest were lured to 

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THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

their death in the vain quest, not only in the 
Colombian Andes but in the valleys of the 
Orinoco and Amazon, and even south along 
the Paraguay and Parana, before the dis- 
covery was made that the custom was a thing 
of the past. 

In the belief that it still existed, there- 
fore, Quesada and his company of nearly 
eight hundred men had left Santa Marta 
sometime in 1536, and, harassed by bands 
of savages, forced their way, with almost in- 
conceivable difficulty, through the wild for- 
ests and undergrowth, along the foothills 
bordering the Magdalena and up the steep 
side of the Cordillera to the delightful series 
of plateaux which were then, as they are yet, 
the populous heart of the country and the 
principal seat of her wealth and culture. In 
the continual fights with the Indians and from 
starvation and fatigue, three-fourths of the 
company had died, but here the survivors 
found themselves at last in a beautiful, fertile 
region, where the climate is perfect and all the 
products of the temperate zone grow luxu- 
riantly, and where the inhabitants, the Chib- 
chas, had reached a state of civilization not 
much inferior to that of the Aztecs of Mexico 

94 



HISTORICAL SKETCH 

and the Caras of Ecuador. Quesada, after 
having subdued them, had founded Bogota 
near the site of the Chibcha capital, on the 
7th of August, 1538. 

Later the same year, to his dismay, Benal- 
cazar, who had come down the Magdalena 
from Pasto, in the opposite direction, reached 
this same plateau, and, a few days later, to 
the confusion of both, another expedition, 
under the command of Nicolaus Federmann, 
which had started from Coro in Venezuela, 
crossed the mountains south of Maracaibo, 
continued in that direction along the llanos 
(plains) at the eastern base of the Cordillera 
and ascended at that point, also put in an ap- 
pearance. Thus these three adventurers, be- 
lieving they had almost reached the goal for 
which many were yet to search, found them- 
selves simultaneously in the very neighbor- 
hood of the former domain of the gilded 
chiefs, but each confronted with the prospect 
of losing all that he had toiled so hard for 
unless he could overcome his rivals. 

What was to be done? Undoubtedly Que- 
sada had the right to possession by virtue of 
his prior discovery and conquest, but the other 
two made claim on plausible grounds, and he 

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THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

had not been commissioned by the King. 
With his depleted force he could not hope 
to defeat their forces combined. Besides, as 
all realized, if they should fight, there would 
probably not be enough of the men left to 
hold the country against the natives, who 
would only be emboldened by such a dis- 
sension. So when it was found that Quesada 
had already gathered in all the spoils in 
sight — which consisted of several thousand 
emeralds and gold vases and ornaments that 
made a pile so high that a man on horseback 
could be concealed behind it — Benalcazar and 
Federmann allowed themselves to be per- 
suaded to accept shares in the loot and sub- 
mit to the King's arbitration their re- 
spective claims to the country. Soon 
afterward the three captains set out for 
Spain in the same ship, leaving Quesada's 
brother in command. None of them ever 
returned. Federmann and Benalcazar were 
censured for exceeding the authority given 
them by their superiors and undertaking con- 
quests on their own account, and, instead of 
appointing Quesada Adelantado, the King 
sent over another governor with considerable 
reinforcements, after which the process of 

96 



HISTORICAL SKETCH 

assimilation and settlement went on about as 
it was going on in Peru. 



Very different was the experience of Pedro 
de Valdivia in Chile. Unlike these other ad- 
venturers, when he set out it was not in 
the expectation of finding any great store 
of gold, since Almagro had reported that 
the inhabitants were poor, but with the in- 
tention of conquering the country and con- 
verting it into a province of Peru. In ac- 
complishing only a part of this purpose, he 
was to have a far more difficult task, had he 
but known it, and many more Spanish lives 
were to be sacrificed, than in all the other 
conquests put together. It had already been 
discovered by Almagro, however, that as far 
south as he had gone, the natives were sub- 
jects of the Inca and that their civilization 
and system of irrigation and agriculture had 
been brought to almost as high a standard. 
He had advanced down the great central 
valley as far as the river Maule, finding 
everywhere a population as dense, probably, 
as that which exists to-day, and had met with 

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THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

little resistance, probably because of the pres- 
ence in his party of the brother of the Inca, 
until he reached the boundary of the empire 
and encountered the independent tribes be- 
yond, and there met his reverse. 

As a consequence, misled by this favorable 
experience with the northern tribes and his 
own with the easily conquered natives of Peru, 
Valdivia took with him, besides his Indian 
auxiliaries, only about two hundred Span- 
iards and a number of women belonging to 
their families. He soon found that, since 
they had learned of the execution of Huascar 
and Atahualpa and that the new Inca, Manco 
Capac, was little more than a mere puppet 
of Pizarro's, the disposition even of these 
northern tribes had changed; that they now 
regarded themselves as released from their 
vassalage. He found also that, although they 
all spoke the same language and appeared 
to belong to the same race, they still main- 
tained their tribal organizations, each with 
its own Cacique and entirely distinct from the 
others; that the Inca socialistic system had 
not been adopted, and that individually they 
were democratic, resentful of encroachments 
on their liberty, and self-reliant. Hardly had 

98 



HISTORICAL SKETCH 

he entered their country when his troubles 
began. To this second invasion, these people, 
who had only looked askance at Almagro, 
now promptly showed their hostility. Their 
lack of efficient military organization and 
concert of action made it easy, however, to 
overcome what resistance they could offer on 
the spur of the moment, and Valdivia suc- 
ceeded in pushing on for several hundred 
miles until he came to the section of the 
valley through which flows the river Mapocho. 
There, fascinated doubtless by the gor- 
geousness of the environment, he selected a 
site at the river side, at the base of an isolated 
hill (called Santa Lucia), in the midst of the 
broad plain that lies between the two great 
mountain ranges, two thousand feet above the 
level of the sea, and founded the city of San- 
tiago, which has ever since remained the capi- 
tal. Following Pizarro's example, among the 
first buildings he caused to be erected were 
the Cathedral and Bishop's house, and after- 
ward, and only just in time to save the colony 
from annihilation, he fortified Santa Lucia, 
for the town itself was soon attacked by an 
overwhelming force of Indians and half the 
houses burned to the ground before they 

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THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

could be driven off with the help of an ex- 
ploring party that opportunely returned. 
This was only one of many such vicissitudes, 
in the course of which, so beset were the in- 
vaders and so reduced did their number and 
the health of the survivors become by priva- 
tions and fighting, that all but Valdivia were 
for abandoning the conquest and making a 
dash for Peru. 

Mutiny was only prevented by the dis- 
covery of gold in the mountains near by and 
the arrival of reinforcements from Lima. 
After that he was enabled to found the town 
of Coquimbo on the coast about two hundred 
and fifty miles north of the capital, and visit 
Peru to arrange for the sending of more 
colonists and supplies. While there he as- 
sisted in the suppression of Gonzalo Pizarro's 
revolt, and had no difficulty in inducing a 
large body of adventurers to go back with 
him, for Lima now was swarmed with men 
who were eager enough to win lands and 
slaves or take their chance of making their 
fortunes in the mines. "With their help," 
says Dawson, "the conquest and settlement 
of all Chile as far south as the Maule was 
effectually completed. The land was appor- 

100 



HISTORICAL SKETCH 

tioned among the cavaliers, each becoming 
a sort of feudal baron, and in effect creating 
a landed aristocracy which has continued to 
rule the country to the present day." 

In 1544, Valdivia founded Valparaiso, the 
seaport of the capital, and rebuilt Coquimbo, 
which had been taken and burned by the 
neighboring Indians during his absence in 
Peru. He then devoted several years to 
making good his conquest and firmly es- 
tablishing the colony, and in 1550 turned his 
attention to the country south of the Maule. 
Between the Maule and the Bio-bio were the 
Promaucians and their kindred tribes, and 
south of the Bio-bio was a confederacy com- 
posed of tribes, also related by blood and 
language, which inhabited the forests and 
mountains and lake region for a stretch of 
two hundred miles. Chief among these were 
the Araucanians — the one unconquered ab- 
original race in the new world, the one 
aboriginal race in America, North or South, 
that never was conquered by Europeans, the 
one race that checked the victorious march 
of the Spaniards and compelled them, after 
more than a hundred years of almost incessant 
warfare, to acknowledge their independence 

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THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

and accept the Bio-bio as the southern bound- 
ary of the Spanish possessions — not warfare 
of the usual desultory, treacherous Indian 
sort, but warfare abounding in formal cam- 
paigns and sieges and pitched battles, in 
which large armies were engaged, in numbers 
often evenly matched. 

Inferiorly armed with clubs, spears, and 
bows and arrows, their bodies protected 
only by leather cuirasses, they met the Span- 
iards and their native auxiliaries in open 
field and charged and fought them hand to 
hand, and defeated them too in many a 
Homeric fray in spite of the steel armor and 
swords of the Conquistadores and their cav- 
alry, artillery, and firearms. Inspired by ad- 
miration, a chivalrous Castilian, the soldier- 
poet Alonso de Ercilla, who was himself in 
some of the fights, has told the first part of the 
story in his historical epic in thirty-seven can- 
tos — the story of how their lion-hearted chief, 
Caupolican, undismayed by defeat in the first 
encounter, persisted until he had destroyed 
an army of the invaders and driven the sur- 
vivors back to Santiago; how, when wounded 
and helpless, he was captured at last and 
underwent torture and death with the stoicism 

102 



HISTORICAL SKETCH 

of a Mohawk; how his wife, indignant at his 
having permitted himself to be taken alive, 
ran to the scaffold and threw their baby at his 
feet, crying out that she would no longer be 
the mother of the child of a coward; how the 
brilliant young Lautero took three Spanish 
strongholds, invaded the country north of the 
Bio-bio, defeated every army that was sent 
against him, and laid siege to Santiago it- 
self; how the fiery Tucapel, while besieging a 
Spanish fort, scaled the wall alone, ran the 
gantlet of the garrison, killed four mail-clad 
Spaniards in fighting his way through, and 
escaped by leaping from a cliff; how an- 
other of their chiefs, moved to pity by the 
straits to which he had reduced a town he 
was besieging, gallantly challenged the Span- 
ish commander to single combat, on condition 
that if he should defeat him the town must be 
surrendered, but that if he were himself de- 
feated the siege would be raised, and how, 
when he was killed, the Indians kept the 
compact and withdrew — and many other such 
stories, some of them rivaling those told of 
the Scottish chiefs.* 



* The story of the Araucanian wars is told in full in Han- 
cock's " History of Chile." 

10S 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

These Araucanlans "had not felt the influ- 
ence of Peruvian culture," says Hawthorne; 
they were "still in their healthy, primitive con- 
dition. In person," he goes on — 

"Most of them were tall, strong, and active, with 
a complexion of light, reddish brown, sometimes ap- 
proaching white. They had a copious language, 
cooked their food, made bread and brewed a dozen 
kinds of spirituous liquors. Cities, in the Peruvian 
sense, they had none, but lived in patriarchal hamlets, 
ruled by ulmens, who were in turn subject to a cacique 
of the tribe. Each farmer was master of his own 
field; there was none of that land ownership by the 
state that obtained in Peru. . . . They made cloth 
garments, which their women adorned with embroid- 
ery and dyed with vegetable or animal extracts. 
They manufactured a kind of soap, and their uten- 
sils were of well-fashioned pottery, wood and marble. 
. . . They went to sea in canoes and fished with 
fish hooks. They knew something of astronomy and 
physics and had some rather crude notions of draw- 
ing and carving. They called themselves Children 
of the Sun, and are supposed to have worshiped the 
sun and moon ; they had the red man's vision of 
happy hunting grounds after death, and believed that 
those who died fighting in battle were certain of a 
happy immortality. . . . Cleanly they were in the 
extreme, in this respect offering a sharp contrast 
to their invaders. . . . They took particular pains 
to keep their magnificent teeth white and clean, and 
were careful to remove all hairs from their faces and 
bodies. The women were dressed in woolen garments 

104 



HISTORICAL SKETCH 

of a green color, with a cloak and girdle; the men 
wore shirts and breeches, woolen caps and footgear, 
and over all capacious woolen ponchos (capes). The 
military system was efficiently organized." 

Having learned that the Araucanians and 
Promaucians were hereditary enemies, Val- 
divia's first step toward the conquest of the 
former's country was to form an alliance with 
the latter and to establish a base of supplies 
at the mouth of the Bio-bio, where he founded 
the city of Concepcion, and, during the year 
1551, occupied himself in fortifying it and 
making preparations for the invasion. On 
the arrival of reinforcements he had sent for, 
he advanced a hundred and fifty miles south, 
and, encountering but little opposition, found- 
ed the city of Imperial, and from that 
point pushed on a hundred miles farther 
and founded the city to which he gave his 
name. On the way back in 1553 he built 
several forts and at Santiago found awaiting 
him a fresh body of troops and horses. Two 
hundred of the men, with an Indian contin- 
gent, he sent across the Andes to begin the 
conquest of what is now the Province of 
Mendoza in Argentina; and then, as Haw- 
thorne relates it — 

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THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

"The Araucanians, uniting with local tribes, made 
ready to clear the country of Spaniards. An army 
of four thousand Indians crossed the bloody Bio-bio 
and gave battle to Valdivia, but that stout warrior 
succeeded, after a desperate conflict, in driving them 
back for the time. In the following year he carried 
the war into the enemy's country. . . . There 
was among them a remarkable old Ulysses named 
Colocolo, who added to ardent patriotism a wonderful 
sagacity in both war and intrigue. He traveled 
over the country preaching a crusade against the in- 
vaders. A great conference was held among the 
various tribes, and a chief named Caupolican was, at 
Colocolo's suggestion, chosen commander in chief. 
This hero was modest and valiant, a giant in stature, 
and wise in counsel as he was brave. His first ex- 
ploit was the capture of the fort of Arauco, which 
he accomplished by an unexpected attack, compelling 
the garrison, after severe fighting, to evacuate and 
retire to the fort at Puren. The garrison at Tucapel 
fort was in like manner driven to Puren, from which 
place word was sent to Valdivia of their peril. 

"He started for the seat of war with two hundred 
men and five thousand Indians. . . . The two armies 
came in sight of each other on the 3d of December, 
1553, and maneuvered for position. The right wing 
of the Araucanians was led by Mariantu, the left 
by Tucapel, the Murat of the host. At the opening 
of the battle Mariantu attacked and cut to pieces 
the Spanish left, and served in the same manner a 
detachment sent to their support. At the same time 
Tucapel swept down on the Spanish right. The lat- 
ter's artillery wrought terrible havoc among the 
Indians and they were thrice repulsed, though with- 

106 



HISTORICAL SKETCH 

out being thrown into confusion. At the critical 
moment of the fight, a young man saved the day for 
the Araucanians. His name was Lautero. He had 
been previously captured by Valdivia, baptized and 
made a page, but he seized this opportunity to escape 
from the enemies of his country and join his friends. 
He called on them to follow him in a final charge. 
They caught the contagion of his valor, and, collecting 
themselves, swept the Spaniards and their allies from 
the field with awful carnage. 

"Valdivia himself was captured. He begged hard 
for his life, even promising, if he were spared, to quit 
Chile with all his followers. Nor did he scruple to 
entreat Lautero to intercede for him. This the mag- 
nanimous former page did, but in vain. The grim 
old ulmens knew too well the worth of Spanish prom- 
ises, and, disregarding Valdivia's screams for mercy, 
one of them crushed his skull with his war club. And 
the next day the trees that grew in the great plain 
again bore Spanish heads as fruit, and Lautero was 
appointed Caupolican's second in command. At the 
council which was forthwith held, it was resolved, in 
accordance with the advice of old Colocolo, to make 
a general attack upon all the Spanish strongholds. 
Angol and Puren were promptly abandoned by the 
invaders, who congregated in Valdivia and Imperial. 
Lautero fortified himself on the precipitous mountain 
of Mariguenu, in order to prevent possible Spanish 
incursions southward. Of a band of fourteen Spanish 
cavaliers who were riding from Imperial to Tucapel, 
seven were slain by the Araucanian Lincoyan. 

"The inhabitants of Concepcion were terrified at 
these catastrophes. Villagran was chosen Valdivia's 
successor. He made careful preparations and ad- 

107 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

vanced with a strong army of Spaniards and native 
allies toward Mariguenu. In a narrow defile Lautero 
fell upon him. The Spaniards tried to scale the 
mountain but were checked by slings and arrows, and 
a body of the Indians, falling furiously upon the 
Spanish cannoneers, captured the guns. An attack 
was then delivered upon the Spanish front and it 
gave way, Villagran flying headlong with the rest 
and barely making good his escape. The remnant 
of the Spanish army was pursued by Lautero to the 
river Bio-bio, where the Araucanians paused, and the 
fugitives staggered into Concepcion. There Villagran 
stayed only long enough to gather together what 
property he could, and then, with all the inhabitants, 
he fled to Santiago. When Lautero entered Concep- 
cion the next day, he found nothing but empty 
houses, which he destroyed. The seven cities were 
having a hard life of it. 

"An attempt some time afterward to retake and re- 
build Concepcion was prevented by the Araucanians, 
who met and defeated the Spaniards in open plain 
and again drove them back to Santiago. ... In 
the next campaign Lautero went against Santiago, 
while Caupolican attempted the siege of Imperial 
and Valdivia. Lautero laid waste the country of the 
Promaucians and fortified himself on the Claro. A 
Spanish reconnoitering party was surprised and cut 
to pieces and Santiago was in danger. Villagran, 
being ill, gave the command to his son Pedro, who 
was led into an ambuscade by Lautero and his army 
slaughtered. But this was Lautero's last victory, for 
a few days later, standing on his battlements to watch 
the approach of a Spanish party, he was killed by 
a chance shot, and though in the battle that followed 

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HISTORICAL SKETCH 

the Araucanians fought valiantly, they were finally 
overpowered. The death of Lautero was for three 
days celebrated by the Spaniards ; and indeed his fall 
meant much to them. He had invariably defeated 
them in battle and outgeneraled them in maneuvers, 
and at the age of only nineteen had made a reputation 
as a warrior such as any veteran might envy." 



From then on the war continued with vary- 
ing success, the Spaniards stubbornly per- 
sisting in their efforts to conquer their in- 
domitable opponents, the Araucanians always 
resisting, and, when beaten for a time, re- 
treating to the mountains, only to recruit and 
return to the contest with renewed vigor, and 
this even when their enemies had grown so 
numerous that they could put thousands of 
their well armed and trained soldiers into 
the field instead of hundreds. Gradually, in 
the course of many years, the Spaniards se- 
cured more and more of a foothold, until 
the great leader Paillamachu took command 
of the Indians and began an uninterrupted 
series of victories. He burned Concepcion 
and Chilian, a hundred miles to the north, 
ravaged the whole country as far up as the 
Maule, carried Valdivia by storm and cap- 
tured, besides the garrison and inhabitants, 

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THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

$2,000,000 of booty and a large store of arms 
and ammunition, afterward reduced Imperial, 
Osorno, Villarica, Cafiete, Angol, Coya and 
Arauco, and, by the time of his death in 1603, 
every one of their cities and forts on the 
mainland; and, at last, when the Spaniards, 
after many other attempts, had failed to re- 
cover the lost ground they were forced to 
resort to a treaty. Says Hawthorne: 

"Another term of raids and reprisals ensued, with 
no conclusive results to either party. Spanish gov- 
ernors and Araucanian chiefs succeeded one another 
year after year; the operations now favored one side, 
now another, but the Spaniards on the whole lost 
more than did the Indians. It was not until 1640, 
about a hundred years since the outbreak of the war, 
that anything approaching a settlement was made, 
and the initiative came from the Spaniards. At the 
village of Quillin the Spanish Governor, the Marquis 
of Baides, met the Araucanian chief Lincopichion, 
both being attended by a great retinue. The treaty 
was ratified by speeches and the sacrifice of a llama. 
The Spaniards and Araucanians were mutually to 
refrain from incursions and the Araucanians were 
not to permit the troops of foreign powers to land 
on their coasts or to furnish supplies to the enemies 
of Spain. This clause was inserted in view of recent 
attempts of the Dutch to effect a lodgment in Chile. 
This compact was kept by the Indians, in spite of 
temptations to break it, for ten or a dozen years, 
when hostilities broke out afresh owing to bad faith 

110 



HISTORICAL SKETCH 

on the part of Spain. The Spanish were overwhelm- 
ingly defeated in 1655 and during ten years the 
power of Spain in lower Chile was broken. In 1665 
the Spaniards were glad to make another treaty with 
the Indians, which was kept for half a century. The 
invaders from the first had gained much more by 
their treaties than by their arms." 

"Thenceforward," says Dawson — 

"The Bio-bio remained the southern boundary of 
the Spanish possessions. An army of two thousand 
men and a line of forts guarded the frontier; and, 
though hostilities were frequent, for centuries no real 
progress was made toward depriving the Araucanians 
of their independence. In the progress of time the 
slow infiltration of Spanish blood and Spanish customs 
modified their characteristics, but it was not until 
1882 that they became real subjects of the Chilean 
government." 

It may be that the Spaniards ought not 
to be blamed for these efforts to complete 
their conquest of Chile and the appall- 
ing amount of bloodshed and distress they 
caused. After all, they only did what the 
Aztecs, Caras, and Incas had already done 
to the peoples of their neighboring countries, 
what the European peoples were constantly 
doing to each other, what England soon after- 
ward did in India, and what, within the last 

111 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

century, our own people did in Mexico, the 
French in Algiers, and the English in South 
Africa. It may be true, as is asserted by 
their apologists, that the motive that actuated 
the Spanish in their conquests was not alone 
greed of land and gold, but in large part 
to Christianize a pagan people and bring 
them into the true fold; but for the long, 
brave fight these Araucanians made, for their 
high standard of patriotism, for their ad- 
herence to their convictions, both religious and 
political, we can feel only admiration and 
sympathy. For these things, as Hawthorne 
puts it, "they merit the thanks of all friends 
of manhood and liberty." 

The northern areas of Argentina submitted 
more quietly to the conquerors. In 1542, 
Diego de Rojas led the first expedition from 
Peru down through the Humahuaca Valley. 
Though he was killed in a fight with a wild 
tribe near the main Cordillera, his followers 
continued their march. Near the site of the 
present city of Tucuman they passed out 
from the mountain defiles, and, leaving the 
desert to their right, penetrated through Cor- 
doba to the Parana River country beyond. 
Lured by the reports of peaceful and wealthy 

112 



HISTORICAL SKETCH 

native communities in the irrigated valleys 
and the magnificent pasture lands in the pam- 
pas stretching away to the east — now the 
scene of Argentina's enormous stock-raising 
and wheat industries — other adventurers soon 
followed from Peru and Chile and were met 
by expeditions from the Atlantic coast, 
marching west in quest of another Peru. No 
permanent settlement was made on the site 
of the present city of Buenos Aires until 
1580. The two parties that had attempted 
it, the first commanded by Juan Diaz de 
Solis, the other by Pedro de Mendoza, had 
been defeated by the Indians and driven off, 
but Mendoza had penetrated into the interior, 
and his lieutenant, Domingo Irala, who re- 
mained and founded a colony, became the 
dominant figure of the new agricultural em- 
pire. 

XI 

The system adopted by Spain for the gov- 
ernment of her vast colonial possessions is 
set forth in the famous code known as the 
Compilation of Laws of the Kingdoms of the 
Indies, framed in the reign of Philip IV and 
published in 1680 in the reign of Charles II. 

113 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

The American possessions had originally 
been divided into two great political entities 
by the Emperor Charles V in 1542. These 
were known as New Spain and New Castile 
and were governed only by Real Audiencias, 
(royal audiences, or tribunals that had both 
legislative and judicial functions). Later 
they were created Viceroyalties, and the 
name New Castile was changed to Peru. 
"We order and decree," said the King in 
Law 1, Title 3, Book III of the Compilation, 
"that the Kingdoms of Peru and New Spain 
be ruled and governed by Viceroys who shall 
represent our royal person. These shall ex- 
ercise superior power, do and administer 
justice equally to all our subjects and vassals 
and apply themselves to all that will promote 
the tranquillity, repose, ennoblement and paci- 
fication of these provinces." 

At that time the Viceroyalty of New Spain 
embraced all the provinces of Central Amer- 
ica and the islands of the Caribbean, and 
Mexico and (west of the Mississippi) pretty 
much all the land to the north, and in the 
Viceroyalty of Peru were included Panama 
and all the land in South America, except, 
of course, Brazil. These viceroyalties them- 

114 



HISTORICAL SKETCH 

selves were subdivided into great provincial 
districts, each administered by a Real Au- 
diencia. These audiencia districts were in 
turn divided into lesser governmental juris- 
dictions known as Gobernaciones (provin- 
cial sub-districts), Alcaldias May ores, Alcal- 
dias Ordinarias and Corregimientos (muni- 
cipal districts of greater and lesser extent), 
and, in harmony with this political ar- 
rangement, there was also an ecclesiastical 
division: into Archbishoprics, coextensive 
with the audiencia districts, Bishoprics, cor- 
responding with the gobernaciones and al- 
caldias mayores; and Parishes and Curacies, 
corresponding with the alcaldias ordinarias 
and corregimientos. The Viceroys were re- 
spectively Presidents of the Audiencias and 
Captains- General of the military forces at 
Lima and the City of Mexico, the viceregal 
capitals; the provincial audiencia districts 
were presided over by Gowned Presidents 
(Ministros Tog ado) and were under the mili- 
tary command of Captains- General, both of 
which officers were subordinate to the Vice- 
roys. 

Within the jurisdiction of the Viceroy of 
Peru were seven royal audiencias: Panama 

115 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

(created in 1535), Lima (created in 1542), 
Santa Fe de Bogota, now Colombia (created 
in 1549), Charcas, now Bolivia (created in 
1559), San Francisco de Quito, now Ecuador 
(created in 1563), Chile (created in 1609) 
and Buenos Aires, now Argentina (created 
in 1661). In the eighteenth century two 
more viceroyalties were created from dis- 
tricts withdrawn from the Viceroyalty of 
Peru: New Granada and Buenos Aires. 
That of New Granada, established in 1717, 
was made up of the Audiencias of Santa Fe 
de Bogota, Panama, San Francisco de Quito 
and Venezuela; that of Buenos Aires, estab- 
lished in 1778, included the territory now 
embraced in Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, 
Patagonia, Bolivia (Charcas) and the south- 
ern part of Chile. Afterward the Audiencias 
of Venezuela and Chile were constituted in- 
dependent Captaincies- General, subordinate 
only to the Council of the Indies in Spain, 
and the Audiencia of Charcas was returned 
by royal decree of 1810 to the Viceroyalty of 
Peru. From these colonial divisions logically 
sprang the South American republics as they 
exist to-day — of course, again excepting Bra- 
zil, which, after she had secured her inde- 

116 



HISTORICAL SKETCH 

pendence in 1822, retained a monarchial form 
of government until 1889, when she became 
a republic like the others. 

Under this Spanish colonial system, there- 
fore, the King was absolute sovereign, and 
governed, not through his ministers of the 
cabinet — for the various provinces were re- 
garded as appanages of the Crown — but 
primarily through his Council of the Indies, 
to which his officers in America reported 
directly, and secondarily through these offi- 
cers themselves — the Viceroys and Captains- 
General, and their subordinates. In addition 
to these executive officers and the royal audi- 
ences, there were Cabildos (municipal coun- 
cils), which had jurisdiction of local affairs in 
their respective communities, but there were 
no elective officers or tribunals, or legislative 
bodies representing the people. The King 
regarded the provinces as his personal prop- 
erty and their occupants as instruments for 
their development for his benefit alone. Inci- 
dentally, they might derive for themselves 
what profit out of it they could, but only in 
ways consistent with his interests and policies. 

Consequently, during this colonial period, 
the Spanish Americans had no opportunity to 

117 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

develop a representative and self-sustaining 
body politic, which, in the course of time, 
might by peaceful means have altered this 
theory and corrected the evils of such a sys- 
tem — as was the case in Brazil, where the 
Portuguese King in person resided in the 
country for several years (during the period 
of Napoleon's Peninsula invasion) and in 
that way became familiar with local conditions 
and the needs of his people. He, on his re- 
turn to Portugal, opened the Brazilian ports 
to the commerce of the world and created 
Brazil a vassal kingdom, with a form of 
government almost wholly autonomous. 

In contrast with this, no Spaniard (and 
certainly no foreign trader) was allowed to 
freight ships for the colonies, or to buy a 
pound of goods anywhere else, without ob- 
taining special permission and paying well 
for the privilege. Cadiz was the only port 
in Europe from which ships were permitted 
to sail for America, and the whole trade was 
farmed out to a ring of Cadiz merchants. 
Every port in Spanish South America was 
closed to transatlantic traffic except Nombre 
de Dios on the Caribbean side of the Isthmus 
of Panama, near the present city of Colon. 

118 



HISTORICAL SKETCH 

Not a merchant ship could enter Buenos Aires, 
Valparaiso, Callao or Guayaquil. Imports 
from Spain must first go to the Isthmus, there 
be disembarked and transported over the An- 
dean passes and the Bolivian plateaux on the 
backs of llamas, and finally be carried down 
over the Argentina pampas to Buenos Aires, 
or along the arid coast to the Peruvian and 
Chilean settlements. Under such conditions 
in the southern provinces European manu- 
factures, agricultural and mining implements, 
and other essentials for a people's advance- 
ment were to be had only at fabulous prices. 
On the other hand, also, the system made 
exports impossible, except the precious metals 
mined in the north, and drugs, and other 
easily transportable products. Hides, hair, 
wool, agricultural products and hard woods 
would not stand the cost of such long and 
difficult hauls. The Peninsula authorities 
acted upon the theory that America should 
be confined to producing gold and silver. 
The Plata settlements, especially, and all 
others south and east of the Peruvian-Bo- 
livian mining region, suffered from this ruin- 
ous suppression. Having no mines, they were 
considered worthless, so far as the royal 

119 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

treasury was concerned, and were in conse- 
quence ignored — until they came in conflict 
with home industries by the cultivation of 
olives and grapes, and then, to protect the 
Peninsula growers, the Argentinos were 
forced to cut down their olive trees and uproot 
their vines. The inevitable results followed. 
Smuggling, bribe-giving, evasion and con- 
tempt for all law, and hostility to the fiscal 
authorities of the Peninsula grew up when, 
in their stead, the colonists could have been 
developed into a bulwark for Spain, which 
was so soon to totter from her proud position 
as the greatest of the world powers. Where 
science of government and national up-build- 
ing should have been taught and fostered, 
revolution became the only political refuge. 

In 1808, when Napoleon forced the ab- 
dication of Charles IV, held him and his 
successor, Ferdinand VII, prisoners in 
France, and established his brother Joseph 
on the throne, came the colonists' oppor- 
tunity. In April, 1809, a Junta (national 
assembly) was formed in Caracas; in July of 
the same year the example was followed in 
Peru, and in August at Quito; in May of 
the next year, Santa Fe de Bogota and 

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HISTORICAL SKETCH 

Buenos Aires followed, and Santiago elected 
the Chilean Junta in September. The col- 
onists expected by these steps to release the 
Indians from slavery in the mines in the north 
and west; to restore and develop the culti- 
vation of grapes, olives and tobacco, and 
build up their grazing and agricultural in- 
dustry in the south and east; also to open 
their ports to commerce with Europe, so that 
they might buy commodities essential to their 
growth, and export their own products by 
way of exchange; also to lighten the crushing 
imposts and internal taxation, to abolish the 
tithe system, and reclaim and parcel out the 
vast feudal estates which had gradually been 
absorbed by the Spanish officials in the course 
of an administration which could only be 
likened to that of the rapacious Roman pro- 
consuls against which Cicero inveighed so 
impotently. 

But the ambitious attempts at reform met 
with immediate and successful opposition. 
The country was full of Spanish office-holders 
who saw in them their dismissal and the 
death blow to their spoils system. In the 
short struggle that followed, the success of 
the royal forces was almost universal. The 

181 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

colonists had had no training in warfare, nor 
had they yet developed as a people the unity 
of purpose and sturdy self-dependence which 
was eventually to bring them their freedom. 
The junta governments were everywhere 
effectively suppressed, except in Bogota and 
Buenos Aires, where the fires of revolution 
smouldered during the succeeding years of 
Peninsula chaos that preceded Waterloo, 
and the colonists, with eyes opened at last to 
the true and only remedy for their ills, were 
formulating their great resolve to separate 
themselves entirely from the mother country; 
for, while their measures of reform had been 
suppressed, the ideas that called them into be- 
ing could not be obliterated. Furthermore 
their unsuccessful clash with the viceroys and 
lesser officials brought even more glaringly 
before their eyes the extortions and brutal 
indifference of the ruling class. The attitude 
of the Peninsulares toward the Creoles and 
mestizos of the colonies had always been con- 
temptuous, and now at last the Creoles, being 
for the most part of unmixed Spanish de- 
scent (they were called Creoles only because 
born in America) found their resentment of 
that attitude more than they could endure. 

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HISTORICAL SKETCH 

The series of military successes that was 
destined to lead to the desired result began 
with the fights at Tucuman in the northern 
part of Argentina, in the fall of 1812, and at 
Salta, a little farther north, in February, 
1813. By these battles the persistent efforts 
of the royalist forces in Peru to put an end 
,to the junta government of 1810 in the Plata 
settlements, were checked under the leader- 
ship of Manuel Belgrano. But on the first 
of October following, the Royalists, in viola- 
tion of the armistice entered into after Salta, 
almost destroyed Belgrano's army at Vilca- 
pujio. Disastrous as was the reverse for the 
v time-being, this before long proved a dis- 
tinct service to the colonists, for it placed 
in command of the remnants of Belgrano's 
army General Jose de San Martin, one of 
the two great patriots who finally brought 
the war to a successful issue, and who had 
then just returned with the experience and 
prestige acquired by twenty years' service 
in the Peninsula armies against Napoleon's 
famous marshals. The other of these great 
patriots was Simon Bolivar. 

San Martin recognized at once the futility 
of pursuing the campaign and attacking the 

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THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

Royalists in the mountainous regions of Bo- 
livia, with over a thousand miles of difficult 
roads between his army and base of sup- 
plies. He conceived, therefore, the idea of 
compelling Spain to defend her own bases 
at Lima and Callao, and to this end elab- 
orated a plan for the invasion of Chile and 
capture of Valparaiso, and, from thence, a 
combined military and naval attack on the 
capital of Peru, the seat of Spain's conti- 
nental power. With this purpose in view, 
he repaired to the almost inaccessible town 
of Mendoza on the Argentine slope of the 
Andes, on about the same parallel with the 
Chilean capital, Santiago, and remained there 
two years, recruiting and training a strong 
force and accumulating equipment. 

Shortly after he had established his camp 
of instruction, the Chileans under General 
Bernardo O'Higgins had extorted from the 
Royalist General at Talca a truce whereby 
the protracted struggle to maintain the junta 
government in Chile was for the moment sus- 
pended. This truce of Talca, however, was 
repudiated by the Viceroy at Lima, and 
General Ossorio was soon on his way south 
with another Royalist army, against which, 

124 



HISTORICAL SKETCH 

weakened by local political dissensions, the 
Chilenos were unable to prevail, and were 
decisively beaten at Rancagua in October, 
1814. As this meant a complete restoration 
of Spanish authority in Chile, O'Higgins and 
a few of his officers made their escape with 
the wreck of their army, crossed the Andes 
and placed themselves under the command of 
San Martin. 

In January, 1817, San Martin's army, four 
thousand strong, was ready to move against 
the unsuspecting Spanish in Chile, who had 
been led by a stratagem to believe that he 
would enter the country through one of the 
more easily accessible of the Andean passes 
to the south. San Martin, however, chose 
the highest and most terrible of them all, one 
four thousand feet higher than St. Bernard, 
and which lay to the north instead of south 
of Aconcagua, and accomplished a feat which, 
in endurance and skill, is thought by the 
historians to have surpassed Napoleon's fa- 
mous crossing of the Alps. Descending the 
western slope, he fell upon the Spanish out- 
post at La Guardia on the 7th of February, 
and on the 12th, surprised and defeated Os- 
sorio's main force at Chacabuco. Two days 

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THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

later the liberating army entered Santiago. 
The patriot government was at once re- 
established and the directorship conferred on 
O'Higgins after San Martin, refusing to be 
diverted from his plans for the liberation of 
the entire continent, had declined the honor. 

On the first day of the ensuing year the 
independence of Chile was proclaimed. De 
facto independence was not achieved until the 
decisive defeat of the Royalists on the plains 
of Maypu, on the 5th of April, 1815, and 
then, with Chile cleared of Spanish troops, 
and the port of Valparaiso at his service as a 
base of supplies, San Martin was ready to 
enter upon the next stage of his work — the 
liberation of Peru. 

Another period devoted to recruiting, or- 
ganizing, and drilling elapsed. In August, 
1820, his combined military and naval expe- 
dition set out from Valparaiso with some 
4500 troops. Thus far this stronghold of 
Spain had undergone less violent revolution- 
ary disturbances than any other part of her 
American possessions. In 1820 it was fully 
under the control of Don Joaquin de la 
Pezuela, the forty-fourth successor of Pi- 
zarro. But it was three years now since 

126 



HISTORICAL SKETCH 

Pezuela had reported to the Madrid govern- 
ment that he stood over a volcano liable to 
burst into action at any moment, and had 
received no aid, a situation San Martin un- 
derstood. In this expedition he was ably 
seconded by Lord Cochrane, a former Brit- 
ish naval officer, who was to render most 
valuable service in the naval warfare that 
was at once begun against the Viceroy. Coch- 
rane's first success was the capture of Val- 
divia, Spain's best harbor on the Pacific 
south of Valparaiso, in spite of the fact that 
his rockets were filled with sand instead of 
powder, the Chilean authorities having im- 
prudently employed Spanish prisoners in the 
manufacture of ammunition. 

Arrived off Callao, the seaport of Lima, 
the liberators entered upon operations and 
negotiations lasting several months, during 
which effective missionary work in the cause 
of independence was done throughout Peru 
by San Martin's lieutenants. At last, on the 
6th of July, 1821, the Spanish leaders, 
neglected by their home government, and 
realizing the . ineffectiveness of their forces, 
evacuated Lima, which was at once occupied 
by San Martin. He did not come, he said, 

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THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

as a conqueror, and it was with much hesi- 
tation that he accepted the supreme power 
offered by the patriots; he styled himself 
Protector of Peru, promising to surrender 
the government to the people as soon as the 
Peruvian congress should be assembled to 
take over the burden, and retained his con- 
trol of the embryo republic for a year, not- 
withstanding the hostility that was engen- 
dered by misconception of the high purposes 
embodied in the title he assumed. The wis- 
dom of his retention in power at such a crit- 
ical period is hardly to be contested. 

This was the decisive campaign of the 
war of independence on the continent. The 
future of Buenos Aires and Chile, of New 
Granada and Venezuela, and of all the Span- 
ish settlements depended on the battles that 
were now to be fought in the mountains of 
Peru, where the Royalist forces had concen- 
trated, for this was the very heart of the 
Spanish stronghold. San Martin was not to 
fight these final battles, but to him is due the 
credit of conceiving the plan of action, of exe- 
cuting it almost to the end, and of showing, by 
his retirement in favor of a more convincingly 
popular fellow-patriot of the north, a mod- 

128 



HISTORICAL SKETCH 

esty, soundness of judgment, and generosity 
almost unparalleled among statesmen — for 
in the meantime the northern movement, 
under the direction of Simon Bolivar, was 
approaching Peru. It arrived at the coast 
town of Guayaquil in the spring of 1822. 
San Martin immediately repaired to that port 
for a conference, leaving his administration in 
the hands of the Marquis of Torre Tagle, 
a member of the old nobility who had turned 
revolutionist, and Bernardo Monteagudo. 

The meeting of the two Liberators marked 
the close of San Martin's military career. 
He saw clearly that there could be no room 
for himself and a brilliant, ambitious, mag- 
netic leader like Bolivar in the same sphere 
of action, that it was necessary for the wel- 
fare of the common cause that one of them 
should retire. He was great and patriotic 
enough to make the sacrifice. Returning to 
Lima, he resigned the supreme authority and 
retired to Europe. There was no place for 
him in Buenos Aires, except as a leader in 
the civil wars which by this time were dis- 
tracting the country, and this role he dis- 
dained. In 1850 he died in France at the 
age of seventy-two, after a thirty years' 

129 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

struggle with sickness and poverty, but at- 
tended always by his devoted daughter. 
After his death his body was brought to 
Buenos Aires and reverently placed in a 
tomb, one of the handsomest in the world, 
about which stand three marble figures rep- 
resenting Buenos Aires, Chile, and Peru. 

Bolivar's career had begun in Venezuela, 
where he was born. After Spain's suppres- 
sion of the junta established in Caracas in 
1810, Bolivar, with the revolutionist Miranda, 
had landed in Venezuela and called into be- 
ing the first congress of the people, and the 
independence of the country was proclaimed. 
In the fighting that followed, the movement 
thus started met a speedy end — literally shat- 
tered by an awful earthquake that occurred 
on Holy Thursday of 1812, which the Roy- 
alists claimed was a stroke of Divine ven- 
geance against those who would have over- 
thrown the anointed of the Lord. 

Miranda was captured and ended his days 
in a Spanish prison, but Bolivar escaped into 
New Granada and soon had full sway in the 
revolutionary councils of the northern prov- 
inces. In 1813 he founded at Bogota an 
active revolutionary junta and a military 

130 



HISTORICAL SKETCH 

organization. With the latter he struck the 
Royalists at Cucuta, just within the eastern 
border of Colombia, and passed over the 
mountains to Caracas, proclaiming war to 
the death. Here his role of Dictator be- 
gan. His career, however, was punctuated 
by many disasters before the decisive battle 
of Boyaca placed Bogota permanently in his 
hands and gave assurance of eventual suc- 
cess. But from this triumph Bolivar hurried 
to the revolutionary congress he had some time 
before called at Angostura and procured the 
enactment of a law providing for the union 
of Venezuela and New Granada, to form 
the Republic of Colombia, and was elected 
President; and by the end of the year 1821 
all of this territory, except Panama and 
Puerto Cabello, near La Guayra, had been 
freed from the control of Spain. 

The famous battle of Pichincha, won on 
the 24th of May, 1822, by Bolivar's great 
lieutenant, Antonio Jose de Sucre, gave 
Ecuador also to the northern federation; 
later it was formally incorporated into the 
new Colombian Republic. Still for two 
years the final clash between the Royalists 
and the patriots was deferred, during which 

131 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

time the confusion of sectional interests and 
negotiations by the now desperate mother 
country threatened to undo the great work 
of the liberators. But once more Bolivar 
triumphed. By the withdrawal in his favor 
of San Martin, harmony was restored; with 
his victory at Junin on the 6th of August, 
1824, and the decisive battle on the plain of 
Ayacucho, midway between Lima and Cuzco, 
on the 9th of December, the war came to an 
end. In that brilliantly fought battle the 
patriot army, again under Sucre, defeated a 
largely superior force commanded by the 
Viceroy in person in less than eighty minutes. 
The Viceroy wounded and a prisoner, and 
his men having deserted by hundreds, his 
second in command sued for terms, and that 
afternoon fourteen generals, five hundred and 
sixty-eight officers of other grades, and three 
thousand two hundred privates became pris- 
oners of war. 

Following this victory, Sucre proceeded to 
Charcas and convened the patriot congress 
which in August, 1825, proclaimed the Re- 
public of Bolivia, and became its first Presi- 
dent. Bolivar was then at the head of affairs 
in Peru. He soon, however, relinquished his 

132 




STATUE OF BOLIVAR, LIMA. 



HISTORICAL SKETCH 

dictatorship and returned to Bogota to re- 
sume, for a brief term, his functions as 
President of the federation of Colombia. 
From that time on he sank rapidly from his 
apogee and, beset on all sides by the enemies 
his supposed imperial designs had made for 
him, died on his estate of Santa Marta on the 
17th of December, 1830, at the early age of 
forty-seven. Disheartened, his personal for- 
tune gone, he had abandoned any designs of 
that character he might once have had and 
only a few days before the end wrote to the 
Colombians: "My last wishes are for the 
country's happiness. If my death can con- 
tribute to the quieting of party strife and to 
the consolidation of the union, I shall go 
down to the grave in peace." To him also in 
after years his people erected monuments in 
tardy recognition of his matchless services. 

The Portuguese provinces were the only 
ones to continue the monarchical system. 
They too, however, declared themselves inde- 
pendent, and became known as the Empire 
of Brazil, until 1889, when the present re- 
public was declared. 



133 



II 

BRAZIL 



THE United States of Brazil, next to 
our own United States, form the larg- 
est of the American republics. Brazil 
has an area fifteen times greater than Ger- 
many's, sixteen times as great as that of 
France, 250,000 square miles greater than 
ours, excluding Alaska and our island pos- 
sessions. At its greatest width, the country 
extends inland more than 2000 miles and its 
coast line on the Atlantic is more than 3700 
miles long, twice the distance from Portland, 
Maine, to Key West; yet the population, al- 
though it has doubled in the last forty years, 
is not quite a fourth as large as our own. 
It is estimated that if the whole country were 
as densely populated as France, the inhabi- 
tants would number 622,000,000, or, if as 
densely populated as Germany, 955,000,000. 

134 



BRAZIL 

Some time it may be. Except in the regions 
near the large cities, only a small part is even 
sparsely settled now. 

It argues well for the industry and en- 
terprise of what inhabitants there are, how- 
ever, that Brazil's international commerce is 
relatively nearly as great in proportion to her 
population as ours. Some idea of the re- 
markable progress she has made is given in 
the following extract from a pamphlet re- 
cently published by the Commissdo de Eoo- 
pansao Economica, entitled "Do you Know 
the Wealth of Brazil?" 

"In the colonial days, the foreign trade of Brazil 
Was done exclusively through Lisbon, under the pro- 
tection of Portuguese men-of-war. . . . The colo- 
nial produce was distributed among the principal 
Portuguese commercial centers and the imports 
came exclusively from Portugal to the ports of Bahia, 
Rio de Janeiro, Pernambuco, Para, and Maranhao. 
Until the end of the eighteenth century, the foreign 
trade of Brazil was continued more or less on this 
basis, but the exports were considerably more than 
the imports. By decree of January 28, 1808, the 
King of Portugal, Don Joao VI of Braganza, lately 
arrived at Bahia" (when he fled from the Peninsula 
as a result of Napoleon's invasion), "resolved to 
open all the ports of Brazil to the commerce of for- 
eign nations, until then closed for the benefit of Por- 
tugal. The first consequence of this decree was the 

135 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

establishment of commercial relations with England. 
English agencies were opened at Rio de Janeiro, 
Bahia, and Pernambuco for the purpose of importing 
manufactured articles and exporting sugar, alcohol, 
gold, cotton, hides, coffee, cocoa, timber, and indigo. 
After the proclamation of independence in 1822, the 
trade developed enormously, France, the United 
States of America, Germany, Holland, and Sweden 
following the example of England. . . . From 
1846 to 1875 the imports increased 110 per cent, 
and the exports 175 per cent. From 1876 to 1905 
the imports increased 175 per cent, and the exports 
272 per cent. ... In 1909 its total value was 
£101,844,549 (over $500,000,000)." 

In 1910 it was $545,581,275, in which we 
participated to the extent of $142,437,986, 
including $58,808,467 worth of coffee and 
$47,409,030 worth of rubber that were ex- 
ported to us. For the principal industry is 
still, as it has always been, agriculture, though 
in the mountainous sections there are vast 
regions containing gold and precious stones 
and minerals of incalculable value, millions 
of square miles in the interior still covered 
with virgin forests; and yet even the rela- 
tively small sections that have been culti- 
vated produce more than three-fourths of 
all the coffee consumed in the world and more 
than three-fifths of all the rubber, not to 

136 



BRAZIL 

mention the other products. But within the 
last few years immigration has been encour- 
aged and many conditions that were prevent- 
ing development have been improved. Won- 
ders have been accomplished in making the 
cities as healthful as any in the world. The 
railroads have been, and are still being, 
extended tremendously and facilities for com- 
merce along the great inland waterways con- 
tinually increased. 

The first of the important seaports of 
Brazil that are accessible by steamer from 
New York is Belem, the capital of the State 
of Para. It ranks only as the fifth in size, 
but to the tourist it is of surpassing interest 
because it is situated on the Para River, the 
southern or commercial mouth of the Amazon, 
that mightiest and most majestic of all the 
rivers in the world. 

Imagine! — a river more than 3400 miles 
in length, with its source in the Peruvian 
Andes, 16,000 feet above the level of the sea 
— a river which, with its vast tributaries, 
many of them themselves from a thousand to 
two thousand miles in length, drains a ter- 
ritory of 2,300,000 square miles, two-thirds 
as large as our United States, and so rich 

137 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

in indigenous resources, and so fertile, that 
many, years ago, when it was wholly a wilder- 
ness, the great scientist Von Humboldt said 
of it that "it is here that one day, sooner or 
later, will concentrate the civilization of the 
globe" — a river that is a mile and a half 
wide at Tabatinga, the last Brazilian port to 
the west, and gradually broadens on its way 
to the sea until it attains a width of 150 
miles at its northern mouth alone, and dis- 
charges into the Atlantic a volume of water 
more than four times as great as the outpour 
of the Mississippi— -a river that is navigable, 
that is now actually being navigated by 
ocean liners, for 2000 miles, clear across 
Brazil to Iquitos in the frontier of Peru. 

Yet, although as early as 1541 Francisco 
de Orellana, one of Pizarro's little band of 
conquerors, who had crossed the Andes in 
quest of the fabulous country of El Dorado, 
and, after having traversed the whole course 
of the river through Brazil with a few com- 
panions in a canoe, had made his way back 
to Spain and told amazing stories of the 
wealth of the region he had discovered, and 
although a century later the astronomer La 
Condamine, and still later Baron von Hum- 

138 



BRAZIL 

boldt, Castelnau, and others had successively 
published alluring accounts of their explo- 
rations in the same region, it was not until 
1867 that the river was opened to free navi- 
gation. 

It is gratifying to reflect that, probably 
more than to any other outside influence, it 
was due to the publication of the report of an 
expedition undertaken in 1851 by William 
Lewis Herndon, a lieutenant in the United 
States Navy, and to the explorations of 
Louis Agassiz, a Harvard professor, that 
the interest was aroused which at last brought 
this about. Lieutenant Herndon, like Orel- 
lana, started from Lima, and, braving the 
passes of the Andes, entered the Amazon 
from one of its western affluents and made 
the journey in a canoe, with only a Peruvian 
guide and a few Indian rowers, all the way 
to its mouth. Professor Agassiz, whose ex- 
plorations were begun fifteen years later, 
started from Belem and traveled in a steam- 
boat, such as it was, accompanied by his wife 
and a corps of scientists, and was given every 
assistance possible by the late Emperor Dom 
Pedro, who took a lively interest in the expe- 
dition. But even then in Brazil, the Pro- 

139 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

fessor says in his book, "so little was known 
of the Amazon that we could obtain only 
very meager, and usually rather discourag- 
ing, information concerning our projected 
journey. In Rio, if you say you are going to 
ascend their great river, your Brazilian 
friends look at you with compassionate won- 
der. You are threatened with sickness, with 
intolerable heat, with mosquitoes, jacaraes 
(alligators), and wild Indians." 

Lieutenant Herndon, however, had already 
made known to the scientific world that the 
climate is healthful, notwithstanding the mos- 
quitoes; that, humid and hot as it is during 
certain hours of the day, the nights are al- 
ways cool, and that "the direct rays of the 
sun are tempered by an almost constant east 
wind, laden with moisture from the ocean, 
so that no one ever suffers from the heat; 
and, when he got back to Rio de Janeiro, 
Professor Agassiz assured the Brazilians that 
this was so. Arthur Dias indignantly pro- 
tests (in his Brazil of To-day) that "it is not 
true, as they say, that the climate of this 
region prevents the existence and the ex- 
tending of the population." "It is a legend, 
a fiction," he adds. Mozans, who made a simi- 

140 



BRAZIL 

lar journey to Herndon's very recently, also 
testifies to the same effect. 

Here in this Amazon country, Lieutenant 
Herndon had reported, "we see a fecundity 
of soil and a rapidity of vegetation that is 
marvelous and to which even Egypt, the 
ancient granary of Europe, affords no par- 
allel. . . . Here trees, evidently young, 
shoot up to such a height that no fowling- 
piece will reach the game seated on their 
topmost branches. This is the country of 
rice, of sarsaparilla, of cocoa, of tonka beans, 
of mandioca, black pepper, arrowroot, ginger, 
balsam, tapioca, gum copal, nutmeg, animal 
and vegetable wax, indigo and Brazil nuts, of 
India rubber, of dyes of the gayest colors, 
drugs of rare virtue, variegated cabinet woods 
of the finest grain and susceptible of the high- 
est polish. Here dwell the wild cow, the fish 
ox, the sloth, the anteater, the beautiful black 
tiger, the mysterious electric eel, the boa con- 
strictor, the anaconda, the deadly coral snake, 
the voracious alligator, monkeys in endless 
variety, birds of the most brilliant plumage, 
and insects of the strangest form and gayest 
colors." 

More than forty years of progress and 
141 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

improvement have passed since Dom Pedro 
decreed that the river should be open to inter- 
national trade, yet all these wonders may 
still be seen there — the vast expanses of 
water, the shore lines varied by lofty bluffs 
and low plains of sand, rugged rocks and 
dense masses of foliage, the river surface 
dotted by islands, large and small — the mag- 
nificent forest still crowding to the banks and 
teeming with all the exuberant life and bril- 
liant hues of the tropics — giant sumaumeras, 
their crests towering high above all other 
trees, their huge, white-barked trunks and 
limbs standing out in striking relief from the 
masses of green; tall cocoanut palms, tufted 
at the top with fan-shaped leaves cut into 
ribbons and bedecked with creamy blossoms; 
slender, graceful assai palms, tall and clean- 
stemmed like the cocoanuts, but with fluffy, 
feathery crowns; wine palms from which the 
flowers hang in long, crimson tassels, studded 
with berries of bright green; jupati palms 
with plumelike leaves forty to fifty feet long 
that start near the base of the trunk and 
curve upward on all sides in the form of a 
vase; the familiar fan palm, and a legion of 
others. 

142 



BRAZIL 

And there are rubber trees, which resemble 
in this region our northern ash; stately cas- 
tanhaSj the trees on which the Brazil nuts 
grow, and cacaos, that look like our cherry 
trees, only they give us our chocolate and 
cocoa beans instead and have blossoms of a 
saffron tint; mahoganies, rosewoods and sat- 
inwoods and great sheaves of whispering bam- 
boo; myriads of ferns and exquisitely tinted 
orchids, acacias, scarlet passion flowers, be- 
gonias, yellow and blue — flowers innumerable 
in the wildest profusion. Not little ones like 
our violets hiding modestly among the mosses 
and grass, but big blossoms growing lux- 
uriantly on bushes and on the parasite vines 
that twine about the trunks of the trees and 
hang in festoons from their branches, until 
the whole river border seems ablaze with 
their vivid lights; and there are still the 
monkeys and beautiful butterflies and hum- 
ming birds, and the parrots, macaws, herons, 
egrets, toucans, and countless other gor- 
geously feathered birds, and the Indian vil- 
lages, too, in the midst of their orange and 
banana groves or huddled near the beaches 
where the turtles breed. 

Only now all these may be seen from the 
143 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

decks of ocean liners, or, if one starts from 
Belem or Iquitos, from river steamers as 
safe and comfortably equipped and setting as 
good a table as most of those in our north- 
ern waters. Now the alligators and snakes 
and tigers have been driven far from the 
beaten tracks — not too far, though, for the 
sportsman who loves the excitement of hunt- 
ing big game — now the negro slaves have 
been freed and the Indians are no longer 
hostile; now, in many places, lands have been 
drained and clearings made in the forests, 
and waste marshes and giant trees have made 
way for pastures and thrifty-looking planta- 
tions, where grain, coffee, sugar, tobacco 
and cotton, and pineapples and many other 
things are cultivated; now the rubber and 
cacao and nut gatherers penetrate far into 
the woods; now small, isolated communities 
have grown to be large ones, that send their 
produce directly from their own docks to 
the markets of the world. 

There is Manaos, for instance, the capital 
of the State of Amazonas. Manaos is sit- 
uated at the mouth of the Rio Negro, which 
empties into the Amazon a thousand miles 
from the coast. When Lieutenant Herndon 

144 



BRAZIL 

was there in 1851, it was a wretched little 
town, containing but four hundred and sev- 
enty houses, most of them one story in height, 
and had a population of about four thou- 
sand — whites, Indians, mixed breeds, and 
negro slaves all combined. To-day it is a 
modern, rapidly growing city, with a popu- 
lation already numbering fifty thousand, 
perhaps more, including many foreigners. 
There is an imposing stone State House, a 
white marble Palace of Justice, and a splen- 
did monument commemorating the opening 
of the Amazon to international trade. It has 
broad, shaded, well-paved streets, lined with 
handsome buildings; it has electric lights, 
trolley lines, a telephone system, water and 
harbor works, an ice plant, banks, hotels, 
newspapers, up-to-date shops, ^ warehouses 
and public markets, a good library and ex- 
cellent educational institutions, and is rated 
among the greater ports of South America 
because of its extensive shipments of rubber 
and other products of the country round 
about. 

A visit to the beautiful public gardens, 
where an orchestra plays in the evenings, and 
to the Amazonas Theater is well worth while. 

145 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

It is said to have cost $2,000,000 in gold, 
that theater — which is not at all surprising 
to any one who has seen it, for it is truly 
superb, a structure of stone with marble 
supporting columns, that stands on a great 
causeway of masonry occupying a command- 
ing site on the Avenida Eduardo Ribeiro, the 
principal thoroughfare and fashionable prom- 
enade, and has a lofty, brightly colored dome 
that can be seen from the harbor, and a mag- 
nificent foyer adorned with paintings by a 
famous Italian artist. 

Obydos, too, perched on the bluffs beside 
an old fortress near the mouth of the Trom- 
betas, and Santarem, at the mouth of the 
iTapajos, about midway between Manaos and 
the coast, are other progressive cities that of- 
fer opportunities for agreeable breaks in the 
long journey. As it was in the Tapajos that 
gold was first found in the region, Santarem 
is one of the oldest if now one of the most 
up-to-date of the towns. It is possessed, be- 
sides, of a peculiar interest for North Amer- 
icans because after our civil war it became 
the home of quite a number of our "unrecon- 
structed" Confederates. 

But Belem, or Para as it is more generally 
146 



BRAZIL 

called by foreigners (one may take his 
choice, since the full corporate name is Santa 
Maria de Nazareth de Belem do Grdo Para), 
is by far the largest and most interesting of 
them all, for not only has the wealth that 
has poured into it in recent years trans- 
formed it into a big city of about two hun- 
dred thousand inhabitants, boasting, like 
Manaos, all the modern public utilities and 
conveniences, but it is old and rich in relics 
associated with its romantic history, much 
care has been taken in the adding of the new 
to beautify it, its climate is much more de- 
lightful than the others (the mean annual 
temperature is only 82° F.), and it is also 
charmingly clean and picturesque. "Who 
comes to Para," runs a local proverb, "is glad 
to stay; who drinks assai goes never away" 
— though assai need have no real terrors for 
that reason. It is nothing more seductive than 
a most refreshing beverage made from the 
fruit of the assai palm. 

Almost at the very threshold of the city, 
on the approach from the sea, one encoun- 
ters some of the wonders in which the region 
abounds — first the "pororoca" which is the 
name originally given by the Indians to the 

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huge waves that are created by the conflict 
of the descending waters of the river with 
the inrushing current of the Atlantic and 
follow each other in series of three or four, 
with thunderous intonations. For nearly an 
hour in the progress through the great es- 
tuary the conflict can be observed. Then the 
river seems to prevail; its surface grows more 
placid, the color changes from the dark hue 
of the ocean to light green, and, on beyond, 
to the tawny yellow of the Amazon. Yet they 
say the ebb and flow of the tide is perceptible 
as far up as Obydos, 700 miles away, and, 
when it ebbs, that the tawny yellow can be 
seen many miles out at sea. Then, scattered 
about, here, there, and everywhere on the 
twenty-mile-wide bosom of the Para, as 
though in the titanic struggle some larger 
body had been broken into bits, are hundreds 
of wooded islands, moist and radiant in the 
sunlight, their varied greens in delightful 
contrast with the silvery sheen on the waters 
and the bright turquoise of the sky. 

The city, seen from a distance, with its 
background of forests and rows of white- 
walled, red-roofed houses, separated into 
clusters by the parks and tree-lined avenues 

148 



BRAZIL 

sloping down to the shores of its own spa- 
cious bay, has the gay, holiday appearance of 
a summer resort. Only a closer view dispels 
the illusion, for its harbor is filled with ves- 
sels of every size and description, from the 
little monatriaSj or canoes, of the Indians, to 
the great liners of the Brazilian Lloyd. Its 
compact business section in the vicinity of 
the quay, the Custom House and market and 
the warehouses of the steamship companies 
present a commercial aspect substantial and 
busy enough to command the respect even 
of a Chicagoan or New Yorker. As already 
stated, more than three fifths of the rubber 
supply of the world comes from Brazil, and 
two of these three fifths pass this very port, 
to say nothing of the cacao, nuts, oils, to- 
bacco, woods, and other things shipped there, 
or of the importations. 

One of the features of a stay in Belem, by 
the way — that is, for any one interested in 
seeing how the first crude form of an article 
so familiar in its finished forms is produced, 
is a trip to one of the near-by rubber estates. 
It has not yet been necessary in this section, 
if anywhere in Brazil, to resort to cultivation 
to any great extent, and so the huts of the 



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seringueiros (gatherers) are located right in 
the woods, where the rubber trees grow 
promiscuously among the others, and each 
seringueiro is allotted as many as he can at- 
tend to. The sap, which resembles milk in 
color and consistency, is collected in cups 
placed under incisions in the bark, then 
brought into camp in bucketfuls and reduced 
by a primitive process of evaporation to the 
slabs or cakes forming the raw article of 
commerce. One does not have to leave 
Belem itself, however, to see rubber trees and 
most of the other species, too, for there the 
people have been generous enough to pre- 
serve within the city limits a large tract of 
primeval forest, which has been cleared of 
underbrush and converted into a park, known 
as the Bosque Municipal. Also there is a 
wonderful botanical garden and a museum 
where the rarest specimens of the vegetation, 
and animals and the birds and reptiles of the 
country are assembled. 

And even in the business section there are 
charming public squares. The one nearest 
the quay, named for the Bishop Frei Caetano 
Brandao, whose statue is in the center, is par- 
ticularly interesting because facing it is a 

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BRAZIL 

fine old seventeenth-century cathedral of the 
Portuguese type, massive and grave, an old 
marine arsenal now used as a hospital, and an 
ancient fortification, called the Castello, which 
has been maintained because of its historical 
associations. Then there is the Praca da In- 
dependencia, where the Governor's Palace is, 
and a quaint old blue-walled City Hall, built 
in colonial times for a Portuguese minister, 
the Marquis de Pombal, who dreamed of the 
permanent transfer of the seat of the Lusi- 
tanian empire to the banks of the Amazon. 
In the heart of the city, on its most elevated 
ground, is the celebrated Largo da Polvora, 
now commonly called the Praca da Repub- 
lica, after a superb monument it contains — 
of marble surmounted by figures in bronze, 
symbolic of the republic proclaimed when the 
Emperor Dom Pedro was dethroned in the 
bloodless revolution of 1889. It is from this 
point that the four principal avenues extend 
through the city in the cardinal directions. 

"The Largo da Polvora," Arthur Dias 
pays it the compliment of saying (though 
this may, perhaps, be rather too enthusias- 
tic), "shames our Avenida da Liber dade in 
Lisbon; if they could place there the 

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Arc de Triomphe, it would rival the Champs- 
Elysees." It may be that for most its fas- 
cination lies not so much in its beauty as 
in its other attractions, for it is the great so- 
cial and amusement center of a prosperous 
and pleasure-loving community, the thor- 
oughfare along which the best of its hotels 
and clubs and the fashionable cafes and con- 
cert halls are located and many of its finest 
residences. It adds the lively mundane touch 
that is needed to relieve the impressiveness 
of a region where all nature is so overpow- 
eringly beautiful. In the midst of the gar- 
dens, which are separated by luxuriantly 
shaded streets, is the Theatro da Paz, re- 
garded as one of the best in Latin America, 
and the Apollo Circus and Paz Carrousel. 
Near by is the handsome Paz Hotel, with its 
popular cafe. 

In the evenings, when the cool breeze sets 
in from the ocean, the whole scene becomes 
animated. The brilliantly lighted avenues 
and driveways in the park are thronged 
with the carriages and motor cars of the 
"four hundred," the sidewalks with crowds 
of pleasure - seekers, cosmopolitan and well 
dressed. Then the cafes all have out their 

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BRAZIL 

little zinc tables, jammed with customers 
of both sexes (these cafes are not mere 
drinking places, most of them, but a sort of 
peculiar combination of cafe, candy store, 
and ice-cream saloon), dozens of orchestras 
play, the places of amusement are in full 
blast, and music and gayety reign supreme. 

ii 

Because of peculiar economic conditions, 
the railroads of Brazil, as originally planned, 
were not intended, like ours, to facilitate com- 
merce among the States, but only for the 
purpose of bringing the products of the va- 
rious developed sections of the country to 
the nearest shipping points. Thus Recife, 
the seaport of the State of Pernambuco, is 
the focus of one system, Sao Salvador da 
Bahia of another, Rio de Janeiro of a third, 
Santos, the port of Sao Paulo, of a fourth, 
and Porto Alegre, the chief port of Rio 
Grande do Sul, of a fifth. Not long ago, 
when these conditions began to undergo rad- 
ical changes, the government realized the de- 
sirability of establishing connections by 
means of lines running north and south. The 

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Rio de Janeiran system was extended north 
to the growing port of Victoria, in the neigh- 
boring State of Espirito Santo, and con- 
nected with the systems of Sao Paulo and 
Rio Grande do Sul, and in 1910 pushed still 
farther south into Uruguay, so that by the 
end of the year it was possible to travel by 
rail from Victoria to Montevideo, a distance 
of more than two thousand miles. 

The lines north of Victoria, however, have 
not yet been connected and the nearly twenty- 
five-hundred-mile journey from Belem to 
Rio, therefore, must still be made by sea. 
But, long though the trip is, it is very far 
from being a monotonous one, if only the 
tourist has the time to make it on a coast- 
wise steamer that stops at the principal ports 
of call. Sao Luiz da Maranhao, "the City 
of Little Palaces"; Fortaleza, the port of 
Ceara, regarded as one of the loveliest in 
Brazil; Pernambuco, with its canals and la- 
goons and bridges, a city that inspired a 
famous Brazilian poet to exclaim: "Hail, 
beautiful land ! O Pernambuco, Venice trans- 
ported to America, floating on the seas!" 
and terraced, crescent-shaped Sao Salva- 
dor, enthroned on the hills beside its mag- 

154 



BRAZIL 

nificent bay — all these are so interesting that 
they richly repay a visit. All are older than 
the oldest English settlement in the north- 
ern continent, yet, unlike Jamestown, there is 
not one of them that has not kept pace with 
the national progress. 

The huge breast of land on which these 
cities are located, that reaches out in a direct 
line toward the western extremity of Africa 
and lies in the track of all ships bound by 
way of the Atlantic to and from the country 
south of the equator, is the great sugar, cot- 
ton, and tobacco region, and was the first in 
Brazil to contain a large European popula- 
tion. The French coveted and poached on 
it and were the first to settle Sao Luiz in 
Maranhao; the Dutch seized it in 1630, while 
Holland was at war with Spain and Portu- 
gal and her possessions had fallen under 
Spanish suzerainty, and held it for twenty- 
five years in spite of all the Portuguese and 
Spanish could do, only to be driven out at 
last by the persistence and courage of the 
colonists themselves. 

It is doubtful whether anywhere else could 
be found such a mingling of the classic, 
medieval, and modern in architecture, such 

155 



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quaint old institutions and customs of living 
in an atmosphere permeated with up-to-date 
business methods, such strangely attractive 
displays of primitive ornaments and curios 
as may be seen in their shops side by side 
with importations from Paris. In few other 
places could such results be studied as have 
come from the process of racial assimilation 
that has been going on for centuries in the 
mestizo classes — the Indian by the Cauca- 
sian, the African by both; for in Brazil? as 
in the islands of the Caribbean, immense 
numbers of blacks were brought over in the 
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries after the 
enslavement of the Indians had been forbid- 
den. Nor could more cordial courtesy be 
met with anywhere than that with which one 
is here treated by all, as a rule, from the 
highly cultured, thoroughbred Portuguese to 
the poorest and most illiterate mixed-breed 
or negro laborer — though this is true of nearly 
every place in South America. 

Of all these cities, though, Pernambuco is 
perhaps the most interesting. After Rio, 
Sao Paulo, and Bahia, it is the largest and 
most important in the country. Its canals 
and lagoons and handsome bridges, which 

156 



BRAZIL 

give it an attractiveness distinct from the 
others, are accounted for by the fact that the 
city is divided into sections by the channels 
of the river at the mouth of which it lies, and 
a few hundred yards out from the shore is 
a long reef, running parallel with it, that 
forms a natural breakwater, which encloses 
the harbor and protects it from the heavy 
rollers in time of storm. It is from this reef 
that the section known as Recife, the old city 
proper, derives its name. 

Recife is the commercial and shipping sec- 
tion now. There is not much to commend it 
to the sightseer except a few fine old churches 
and the Praca do Commercio, a place of gen- 
eral resort facing the local Wall Street, where 
almost every one who is engaged in business 
down town is to be seen taking a breathing 
spell at some hour or other during the day. 
Near by is a large hucksters' market, which, 
it must be confessed, serves better than the 
hotel menu to disclose the peculiarities of the 
fare with which the denizens of the neighbor- 
hood regale themselves. And good fare it 
is, too, and wonderful to behold — to a north- 
erner unaccustomed to such luxuriance. 

The section in which the government build- 
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ings and custom house and the principal re- 
tail stores, theaters, and places of amusement 
are to be found is the one called Sao An- 
tonio, on a large island a little to the south- 
east. This part of the town is much better 
built. Many of the old houses, as in Recife, 
are reminiscent, some of the early Portu- 
guese, others of the Dutch occupation — tall, 
pointed-roof structures, painted white or pale 
blue or pink — but the newer ones, and the 
streets generally, are more sightly and char- 
acteristic of the indulgent, easy-going, artis- 
tic temperament of the people. The fash- 
ionable residence district is called Boa Vista 
and lies back on the mainland, where the 
bishop has his palace. Most of the houses 
here are the charming one-story affairs, sur- 
rounded by beautiful gardens, so suited to 
life in the tropics. 

Three or four miles to the north is a 
suburban section called Olinda, where many 
of the old families still have their homes. 
In colonial times, as Dawson tells us, when 
this part of the country was supplying Eu- 
rope with nearly all of the sugar it used 
and the planters were rolling in wealth, 
this "was the largest town in Brazil and 

158 



BRAZIL 

the one where there was the most luxu- 
rious living and the most polite society. 
Great sums were spent in fetes, religious 
processions, fairs, and dinners. The simple 
Jesuit Fathers were shocked to see such vel- 
vets and silks, such luxurious beds of crim- 
son damask, such extravagance in the trap- 
pings of the saddle horses. Carriages were 
unknown and, instead, litters and sedan 
chairs were used, and these remained in com- 
mon use until very recent times." Lots of 
these old houses and customs still exist, and 
there are many new features of the town that 
are worth seeing. 

Sao Salvador da Bahia, "where the wicked 
Brazilian cigars come from," was the pro- 
vincial capital once, and the seat of govern- 
ment of the whole Portuguese empire when 
the King was forced by Napoleon's aggres- 
sions to take refuge in Brazil. Formerly, too, 
it was the headquarters for diamonds, before 
the mines in the south and in South Africa 
were developed. Now it is the capital of the 
rich Bay State, and is the third of the big 
cities in point of size and importance — 
though here the percentage of negro blood 
is much higher than anywhere else in the 
country. ll5 9 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

Its location is delightfully picturesque, the 
upper section built on bluffs several hun- 
dred feet above the level of the bay, the 
lower along the shore. In this lower sec- 
tion, behind the docks, are the warehouses 
and factories, the arsenal and a great light- 
house, and, aside from defensive works of 
modern type, the old fortifications which the 
Dutch had made the most formidable in 
America in colonial times; and on the up- 
per terraces are the Governor's palace and 
public buildings, one of the best public 
libraries in the country, the cathedral and 
convents, the municipal theater, and the bet- 
ter class of residences and amusement re- 
sorts. In general, the streets are much like 
those of Belem and Pernambuco: paved with 
cobblestones and narrow in the shopping and 
cafe districts, with long white rows of two 
and three story houses built closely together, 
many with balconies above the show windows ; 
and the parks are as beautiful and the resi- 
dences out along the wide, palm-lined drive- 
ways are fully as sumptuous. 

But, interesting as are all these places, 
their attractions are fairly dimmed by Rio's, 
and especially by her gorgeous bay. From 

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BRAZIL 

the Guianas to its southernmost boundaries, 
in fact, Brazil is one grand series of pris- 
matic forests, majestic rivers and cascades, 
immense rolling plains and mountains — a 
panorama that is matchless anywhere in the 
world — but, if I were asked to point out 
some one feature that was pre-eminent 
among them all, I should not hesitate to se- 
lect that bay. The bay of Naples, the Golden 
Horn of Constantinople, all those wonderful 
aspects by the mention of which writers have 
sought to impress those who have not seen 
the Rio bay with its grandeur and beauty, 
can but suffer by the comparison. "Extrav- 
agant language must be used in writing of 
it," says Burton Holmes, "for there all is 
extravagance — extravagance of color, extrav- 
agance of form." It is so incomparably sub- 
lime, says the Rev. James C. Fletcher, the 
author of one of the most noted of the de- 
scriptions — though no pen or brush could 
possibly do it justice — that "the first en- 
trance must mark an era in the life of any 
one. I have seen the rude and ignorant Rus- 
sian sailor, the immoral and unreflecting 
Australian adventurer, as well as the refined 
and cultivated European gentleman, stand 

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silent on the deck, lost in admiration of the 
gigantic avenue of mountains and palm-cov- 
ered isles, which, like the granite pillars of 
the Temple of Luxor, form a fitting colon- 
nade to the portal of the finest bay in the 
world." 

Entering the outer bay, we see to the left 
the huge, fantastic figure of Gavia looming 
up from the shore, rock-capped and bald, 
and, a little beyond, the more symmetrical 
crests of the Three Brothers. Just distin- 
guishable, off behind where the city lies, the 
summit of Corcovado (the Hunchback) ap- 
pears. On the right are mound-shaped 
islands called the Father and Mother, that 
protrude from the water like tops of moun- 
tains partially submerged, and, off in the 
distance, the pinnacles of the Organ group 
mount higher than all. In the center, on a 
point jutting out from the mainland, is an 
isolated peak fifteen hundred feet high, 
called the Sugar Loaf, that stands like a sen- 
tinel guarding the narrow entrance to the 
harbor. As we draw nearer, the coloring of 
the mountain sides and shores, only a con- 
fusion of vague tints before, grows more and 
more vivid as the foliage begins to take form, 

162 




Copyright, 1911, by W. D. lloycc. 



BOTAFOGO BAY, HARE 
Photograph used by courtesy of Mr. V 




F RIO DE JANEIRO. 

loyce and the Pan American Union. 



BRAZIL 

and we see that on the hills above the rocks 
at the extremities of the peninsulas that ex- 
tend from either side to form the gateway, 
are white- walled forts. These are known as 
Sao Joao and Santa Cruz, and, passing 
through, we are confronted by still another 
called Lage, midway between but a little be- 
yond. It is steel-clad like a man of war, this 
one, and frowns down from an island of big 
rocks, dominating the passage. Once by 
this, we are in the harbor itself. 

Just within are shapely arms of the bay, 
Botafogo on the Rio side and Jurujuba on 
the other, that sweep around in wide, grace- 
ful curves to two other and much larger 
peninsulas opposite, like those of Sao Joao 
and Santa Cruz; and on one of them, the 
one to the left, is the old or commercial dis- 
trict of the national capital, on the other the 
pretty little city of Nictheroy, the capital 
of the State of Rio de Janeiro — for the city 
of Rio is the national capital and located 
in a separate federal district, like our city 
of Washington. Above these larger peninsu- 
las the water broadens to a vast expanse, a 
sort of inland sea. Inclosing it like a wall, 
and on beyond as far as the eye can reach, 

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stretch the serried peaks of the Coast Range. 

Everywhere, bathed in the intense golden 
sunlight, are the same gradations of green, 
the same riot of brilliantly colored flowers, 
that we saw on the Amazon — only here the 
water is not muddy but deep blue, and the 
beaches are lined with almost snow-white 
sand. Then, as we steam slowly across to 
the anchorage, which lies over between the 
Villegagnon and Cobra islands near the quay, 
we have the first view of the city, dense in the 
center where it covers the peninsula, and 
stretching along the shore and here and there 
back between the foothills, for miles and 
miles to the north and south. The roofs of 
the houses are tiled in reds and browns; the 
walls are cream or rose-tinted or else dazzling 
white. "It looks like a fragment of fairy- 
land," as Curtis expresses it — "a cluster of 
alabaster castles decorated with vines." 

Perhaps I ought to give warning that some 
of the writers on Brazil, after going into 
raptures over the scene in the bay, express 
themselves very differently respecting the 
experience on entering the city. That same 
Mr. Curtis, for instance, goes on to say that 
"the streets are narrow, damp, dirty, reeking 

164 



BRAZIL 

with repulsive odors and filled with vermin- 
covered beggars and wolfish-looking dogs." 
But he was writing of experiences encoun- 
tered many years ago, before the reforms 
and improvements were undertaken, which, 
when completed, will have cost some sixty 
millions of dollars. It is still true, no doubt, 
that in the commercial district several of 
the ugly old sections remain, where there are 
narrow, tortuous streets and dingy ware- 
houses, ship-chandleries, saloons and stores 
that cater to the stevedore class of trade, such 
as there are in all great shipping centers as 
old and as busy as Rio, and of course there 
are the districts in which the lowest classes 
foregather. But since he and Dr. Fletcher 
wrote their books, the old passenger landing 
place called the Pharoux quay has been trans- 
formed into a handsome square ; adorned with 
gardens and a big bronze fountain; hills have 
been leveled to permit extensions and relieve 
the congestion ; literally thousands of marshy, 
mosquito-breeding places have been filled in 
and reclaimed; a fine drainage canal has been 
constructed, an adequate sewerage system 
installed, and a system of masonry docks is 
nearing completion that will rival the cele- 

165 



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brated docks of Santos and Buenos Aires; 
some of the streets have been broadened and 
more have been repaved, and the sanitary 
conditions and healthfulness generally have 
been so improved that yellow fever is a thing 
of the past. 

Besides all this, many magnificent new gov- 
ernment buildings have been erected, notably 
the Congressional Palace on Tiradentes 
Square. The estimated cost of this build- 
ing alone was $15,000,000 and it is proudly 
claimed to be one of the finest in South 
America; also the Palace of the Supreme 
Court, of rose-tinted stone and marble, with 
bronze ornamentations, and the Post Office 
and Mint, National Printing Office and Na- 
tional Library, all of great architectural 
beauty, and the City Hall and Municipal 
Theater. This last is an ornate, high-domed 
marble and stone structure of Moorish design 
that cost $5,000,000 to build. And, to facili- 
tate traffic, a superb hundred-and-flfty-foot 
wide avenue, the Avenida Central, has been 
constructed clear across the business section 
of the city for a mile or more, opening a vista 
from bay to bay. To do this more than six 
hundred houses had to be purchased and torn 

166 



BRAZIL 

down; they have been replaced by others of 
a pleasing general uniformity and elegance of 
appearance, of which any city in Europe or 
America might well be proud. The Jornal 
do Commercio building, for example, looks 
more like one of our fashionable metropolitan 
hotels or apartment houses, than a business 
establishment. The sidewalks are paved with 
mosaics and kept perfectly clean. 

Beginning at the southern end of this ave- 
nue and following the contour of the shore 
past the elegant residence districts of Gloria 
and Flamengo, they have constructed an 
esplanade a mile long, called the Avenida 
Beira Mar, and, farther on, around the ex- 
quisite inlet of Botafogo, where some of the 
handsomest of the residences are, have con- 
verted the semicircular beach into a still 
lovelier avenue, adorned with alternate rows 
of trees and arc lights like the other, and 
flower beds and formal lawns. Unless it is 
the more comprehensive one from the top of 
Corcovado, there is no more enchanting view 
than that of this whole ensemble from the 
Morro da Viuva at the northern end of the 
semicircle, especially looking straight across 
at the hills on the opposite side, where the 

16*7 



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rose-tinted buildings of the Military School 
nestle in the green depths of a rocky cleft, 
with the Sugar Loaf towering behind. 

And then, up near the business section 
again, there is the Paseio Publico, with its 
park and lakes and broad waterside terrace 
overlooking the whole southern part of the 
harbor, and the naval barracks and fortifi- 
cations on historic Villegagnon, quite close at 
this point. It was here that the adventurer 
for whom it is named made the first at- 
tempt at colonizing the neighborhood: with 
a party of Huguenots sent over by Ad- 
miral Coligny to escape religious persecutions 
in France and to found a place of refuge for 
those of the Protestant faith. The Paseio 
Publico is regarded by many as the most 
charming of the parks, but there are lots 
of these beautiful spots. One of them, the 
Botanical Garden, which is larger and more 
complete than the one in Belem, is known the 
world over from the thousands of pictures 
that have been published of its magnificent 
avenue of royal palms. Few visit Rio with- 
out going there; and now that a good cog- 
wheel railroad has been built from one of the 
trolley lines up to the summit of Corcovado, 

168 



BRAZIL 

the whole mountain side has become a wild- 
wood park. With reference to the view from 
the summit, I cannot resist quoting from 
Arthur Ruhl, who describes it so delightfully. 
"The Corcovado is a rock jutting over 
the trees," he says, "so sheer that you look 
down on Rio and the blue harbor as from a 
balloon — down two thousand feet of velvet 
green descents to the terra cotta roofs and 
sun-washed walls and the wheel-spoke streets 
like lines on a map. Not one of our smoke 
hives, but a city of villas and palms and show- 
ering vines and flowers, meandering about 
over the foothills, immersed in the blazing 
sun. The cool, laughing sea envelops it — 
blue, and bluer yet in the sun; and, all about 
in it, islands — agate in turquoise — jut out 
as though the gods had tossed a handful in 
the water. It is, as I heard an American 
say of the backward look toward Rio as the 
train climbs to Petropolis, as though one had 
been taken up into the mountains to see the 
kingdoms of the world and the glory of 
them." Petropolis, though, is not simply 
another viewpoint, but one of the loveliest of 
the suburban mountain cities, where the late 
Emperor lived, surrounded by the ambassa- 

169 



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dors and ministers of the foreign countries 
and the nobility and aristocracy of the old 
regime. It is still the home of the diplo- 
matic corps, and the most fashionable of the 
suburbs. 

Do not imagine for a moment, however, 
that the pleasures of a visit to Rio are limited 
to such things. Like all cities of its respect- 
able age and size — for it has almost, if not 
quite, reached the million mark now — it has 
its antiquities and places of historical interest, 
its museums, art galleries, libraries, statues 
and churches (the paintings and decorations 
in the beautiful Candelaria Church are the 
richest in South America), and its theaters 
and amusement resorts of every description; 
and, down town in that same commercial part 
that Mr. Curtis scored so heavily, is the noisy, 
vivacious old Rua do Ouvidor, of all things 
Rio de Janeiran the one that possesses the 
most individuality, the place where everybody 
who is anybody is to be seen. It is only about 
twenty feet wide — just think of it, the 
"Broadway" of a great city like Rio! — so 
narrow and crowded that vehicles are not 
allowed to go through at certain hours of 
the day, but most of the old somber Portu- 

170 



BRAZIL 

guese-style buildings have been replaced by 
modern ones, and what it lacks in width is 
compensated for by the attractiveness of the 
stores and cafes. 

These cafes, principally devoted to the 
service of the demi tasse, are everywhere in 
Brazil, but here particularly they are the ren- 
dezvous for the official, military, professional 
and more prosperous commercial classes, who 
drop in at all hours to talk things over to 
the music of the orchestra — everything from 
business, religion and politics to the idlest so- 
ciety gossip — only they sip coffee, for the 
most part, instead of highballs and beer. And 
such coffee! A North American never real- 
izes what a perfectly delectable flavor cof- 
fee really is capable of, how deliciously rich 
and sirupy it is when brewed by those who 
know how, until he has drunk it in the Orient 
or down there in Brazil. 

There was a time, and not so very long ago, 
when these crowds along the Rua do Ouvidor 
were all of one sex. The ladies of the upper 
classes — when they went shopping at all, in- 
stead of simply having samples sent to their 
houses to choose from — remained in their 
carriages while the shopkeepers brought out 

171 



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to them for their inspection the various qual- 
ities of such articles as were desired; but this 
old world idea of seclusion, like many others 
at the capital, has given way to more ad- 
vanced ones now. Brazilian metropolitan 
womanhood is beginning to awaken and fol- 
low the general trend toward emancipation. 
In these days ladies not only appear on the 
streets and go from shop to shop on foot, 
as do the ladies of our cities, but drop in at 
certain unexceptionable cafes for luncheon, or 
perhaps at a matinee or some moving picture 
show, unattended by their husbands or fathers 
or brothers. The Avenida, Saturday after- 
noons when the weather is pleasant, reminds 
one of a Parisian boulevard, so densely is it 
thronged with smartly gotten up prome- 
naders and so well patronized are the little 
sidewalk tables under the awnings in front 
of the cafes. Needless to say, on these oc- 
casions the ladies do graciously suffer the at- 
tendance of their admirers or the male mem- 
bers of their families. 

" 'Superb' is the word that best fits the 
beautiful Brazilian woman," no less an au- 
thority than Burton Holmes enthusiastically 
declares. " 'Striking' is the word that best 

TO 



BRAZIL 

describes her dress." Then, referring to their 
appearance at the opera: "The belles of Rio 
seem to have taken the styles of Paris and 
given to them a strange, exotic something 
that makes the toilettes seen at the Munici- 
pal Theater far more striking and effective 
than those at the Paris opera," he goes on. 
"Mere man cannot say in what the difference 
lies, but the fact remains that while the 
gowns may have been made, or at least de- 
signed, in Paris, they are not Parisian; they 
are instead pronouncedly Brazilian. The men, 
too, deserve a word of mention, for they are 
very well-dressed men, much better dressed 
than the men of Paris or of Lisbon — all of 
course in evening dress, all looking as if they 
were accustomed to wearing it. The women 
in the boxes retain their hats. The men might 
as well retain theirs, for they are quite in- 
visible behind the massed millinery of their 
fair companions." 

Rio, of course, has all the up-to-date public 
utilities — electric street-car lines, lights, tele- 
phones, taxicabs and the rest; but, as Arthur 
Ruhl so aptly puts it, "Before the things seen 
and heard and vaguely felt," in this city of 
such strange, peculiar charm, "the endless 

173 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

procession of vague, unrelated things that 
baffle and allure — semi-antique humans liv- 
ing languidly in the midst of a sun-drenched 
nature, which, by its very luxuriance, might 
seem to have overpowered them — Latin sen- 
sibility tinged with African superstition — 
negro coachmen in top-boots, such as Puss- 
in-Boots might have worn — dusky, velvet- 
eyed donzellas — palms, blazing walls and 
indigo sea — one loses interest in railroads and 
power plants and the things we do better at 
home. Brazilians must interest themselves 
in such things, for therein lies their salvation. 
If I seem to neglect them, it is because it 
seems absurd to visit a conservatory full of 
orchids and spend one's time seeing how the 
steam-pipes are put in. By the same token," 
he adds — 



"There is a certain mellowed dignity in the Bra- 
zilian scene — the natural inheritance of the empire, 
and doubtless, also, a reaction of race and climate — 
lacking in the more energetic Argentina. It was only 
in 1889 that good Dom Pedro — that kindly, cultured, 
old-school gentleman — was dethroned and shipped off 
to Portugal. It is only since 1887 that the negroes 
ceased to be slaves. Brazil's foremost statesman, the 
big, able Minister of Foreign Affairs, who, as he 
moved amongst his slender Caribbean brethren at the 

174 



BRAZIL 

1906 conference, looked like the senior partner of 
some old firm of Wall Street bankers, is still called 
'Baron' Rio Branco. You can still see in Petropolis 
the house of the Princess Regent and her husband, 
the Conde d' Eu, overgrown somewhat with vege- 
tation and buried in somber shades. Rio's great 
public library was started by King Joao VI him- 
self when the Portuguese court was transferred to 
Brazil in 1808. 

"There is still a suggestion of the old world and 
grand manner. They have their Academy of Forty 
Immortals ; their politicians are often pleased to prac- 
tice the politer arts. Senhor Joahim Nabuco, who 
presided at the conference, has written his 'Pensees.' 
These litterateurs may be, as Senhor Bomfim 
suggests in 'A America Latina,'' 'inveterate rheto- 
ricians whose abundant works are taken as a proof 
of genius.' Yet at least they have a certain way with 
them. Pompous, grave, they go through the solemn 
motions. In spite of the vast majority who neither 
read nor write, Brazilians of the upper class are prob- 
ably more 'cultured,' in the narrow literary sense of 
the word, than our average man of the same class at 
home. They speak and write French as a matter of 
course in addition to their own language, and most of 
them make fair headway with English. They enjoy 
and encourage music and painting and poetry. 
Opera not only comes to Rio each winter as it does to 
Buenos Aires, but they have their National Institute 
of Music and their native composers, one of whom 
especially, the late Carlos Gomez, has heard his operas 
successfully produced in Europe. They have their 
National Academy of Fine Arts and a gallery which, 
I am sure, is visited and appreciated more than the 

175 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

really excellent one tucked away upstairs in Buenos 
Aires' Calle Florida." 



Ill 

As already said, from Rio one may go to 
Sao Paulo, the second largest — and, with the 
exception of Rio, the most important — city in 
the country, by railroad, and almost as com- 
fortably, too, as one may travel from New 
York to Chicago. The city of Sao Paulo is 
the capital of the State of that name, the 
great land of coffee, the land in fact that 
produces more than half of all the coffee 
grown in Brazil, and Brazil as a whole pro- 
duces more than three- fourths of all that the 
world consumes. The city has a population 
of about 350,000, and is located in the moun- 
tains, about forty miles back from the coast 
and three thousand feet above the level of 
the sea. It is connected by railroad with 
Santos, its seaport, where the best docks in 
the country are now. These two cities, 
though founded in early colonial times, are 
not quite as interestingly characteristic as Rio 
and the others that have been mentioned, for 
they are far enough south to be in the tem- 
perate zone, and have, therefore, attracted a 

176 



BRAZIL 

very much larger foreign element, particu- 
larly German, Italian, Portuguese and Span- 
ish. There are not so many negroes and 
mixed breeds among the laboring classes, and 
their institutions, business methods and social 
life more nearly resemble our own; and, as 
a consequence, they have certainly not been 
behind the rest of Brazil in development. As 
in Rio, enormous sums have recently been 
spent for sanitation, public buildings, and im- 
provements. 

Sao Paulo has thus been transformed into 
one of the most healthful cities in the world, 
and one of the handsomest. Its climate, uni- 
formly mild like that of southern Europe, 
has never left anything to be desired — except, 
perhaps, snow and ice, if there are among the 
residents there any homesick northerners who 
prefer the sharper seasonal contrasts to which 
they are accustomed. The site is too near the 
tropics and the mountains are not high 
enough for freezing cold, yet so high that 
the air has a bracing, invigorating quality. 
As Senator Root declared when he was vis- 
iting the country: "There is something in the 
air of Sao Paulo that makes strong and vig- 
orous men." Their strength and vigor are not 

177 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

attributable, however, to the climate alone. It 
is an inheritance. The early Paulistas were 
of the sturdiest type, men who were com- 
pelled to maintain themselves and extend and 
defend their possessions by fighting and the 
hardest kind of work — an instance, they were, 
of the survival of the fittest. It is small 
wonder that their descendants, with their 
rich heritage of health and vitality and tra- 
ditions, and their enormously productive 
lands, should be distinguished for their enter- 
prise as well as for their wealth and social 
and intellectual culture. In political and edu- 
cational progress they have always been 
prominent. 

A splendid monument to their patriotism 
and enterprise is Ypiranga, a great build- 
ing of classic design, erected on the site 
of the proclamation of independence on a 
hill overlooking the city, and intended both 
to commemorate the event and to be used 
as an institution of learning. Among other 
interesting things, it contains a remarkable 
museum. They have a polytechnic school in 
the city that is the pride of the whole coun- 
try, and the graduates of which are in de- 
mand everywhere because of the particularly 

178 



BRAZIL 

efficient system of training; an institution 
known as the Lyceum of Arts and Crafts, 
devoted to the practical instruction of the 
artisan classes, which graduates skilled work- 
men by the hundreds every year; and an ex- 
cellently equipped normal school that occupies 
a whole square, facing the Praca de Repub- 
lica — these in addition to primary institutions 
and conventional colleges and law and med- 
ical schools, that are attended by students 
from all over Brazil. 

There is even a well-patronized non-sec- 
tarian North American institution, known as 
the Mackenzie College, which has been in 
existence for thirty-five years or more, and, 
of all surprising things — and this is only one 
of many indications of the liberal Catholi- 
cism of their views respecting other religious 
beliefs, notwithstanding the fact that, as 
everywhere else in South America, Roman 
Catholicism is the religion of the state — an 
Episcopal seminary, conspicuously located in 
a beautiful building opposite the Jardim 
Publico. By mentioning particularly these 
institutions, I do not mean to imply that 
there are not excellent educational facilities 
elsewhere in Brazil — especially, of course, in 

179 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

Rio — but the people of Sao Paulo seem to 
devote more attention to education than in 
the other parts of the country and the per- 
centage of illiteracy there, among the people 
as a whole, appears to be much smaller. 

The Governor's Palace and the principal 
office buildings of the administration are lo- 
cated around two large squares, one called 
the Largo de Palacio, the other the Praca 
Municipal, in the heart of the city. Several 
of them are spacious, imposing-looking build- 
ings of stone and marble that compare fa- 
vorably with those of the national government 
at Rio ; all are in keeping with the importance 
of the city and State — particularly their 
superb big theater, which is another of those 
surprisingly costly and attractive places of 
amusement maintained by the municipality 
that one sees so many of in South America. 
The streets in the Triangle, as the com- 
mercial district is called, are crowded and 
busy. There is an air of briskness about 
them that is refreshing — although many of 
the busiest are narrow and unattractive in 
appearance, this being the old part of the 
town. 

Even the Rua Sao Bento, the principal 
180 



BRAZIL 

shopping street, is not much wider than 
the Rua do Ouvidor in Rio; but from this 
district a viaduct eight hundred feet long and 
fifty wide leads to the new parts, where there 
are broad, handsomely built-up avenues and 
shaded promenades, detached houses of mod- 
ern type, surrounded by gardens, and an 
atmosphere of ease as well as luxury, as in 
the less bustling cities to the north. The 
Avenida Paulista is charming. There are 
few handsomer thoroughfares in America, 
either North or South, than this — and it is 
the common boast that along the Rua des 
Palmeiras, their most fashionable residence 
street, and in certain of the suburbs, the 
palatial homes of their millionaires are un- 
rivaled in Brazil. 

The great coffee port of Santos, once 
numbered among the dread homes of Yellow 
Jack, but now as healthful as any port in 
the tropics, is only sixty or seventy miles 
away by railroad — an excellently equipped 
road that runs down the slope from the 
mountain range to the coast over a route 
strikingly rich in scenic effects and grand 
views. The city, which has a population of 
about sixty thousand, is situated on the west- 

181 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

ern shore of a landlocked bay connected with 
the ocean by a narrow but deep riverlike 
channel, ten miles long and flanked, like the 
city itself, by picturesque hills. The streets 
are well paved and clean, the residence sec- 
tion and suburbs attractive, and a narrow- 
gauge railroad affords an opportunity for an 
enjoyable trip to a seaside resort near by, 
where there are good surf -bathing and plenty 
of places of amusement. 

It is said that more than 10,000,000 bags 
of coffee, each weighing 132 pounds, are 
shipped from this port every year. The ex- 
tensive system of masonry docks and cranes 
is famous for its efficiency and is the best 
in South America next to that in Buenos 
Aires. The big steamers and sailing ves- 
sels lying broadside to these docks and an- 
chored in the broad harbor, the custom house 
and warehouses facing the quay, the groups 
of dealers and agents standing bargaining 
out in front, the sailors scurrying about, the 
heavy teams heaped up with sacks of coffee, 
the long lines of negro stevedores, each with 
a bag or two balanced on his head, carrying 
them aboard the ships, all working in the 
blazing sun in this labyrinth of white-walled 

182 



BRAZIL 

streets, with their background of green hills 
and blue water, make up a scene that is both 
lively and bizarre. 

The custom of coffee drinking is relatively 
of rather recent development among peoples 
of Europe and their descendants in America. 
For some reason, for a long time after it made 
its way west from Arabia and Turkey, it 
was under the ban of the church. Maybe this 
was because of its Mohammedan origin. It 
was not until 1652 that the first house that 
made a specialty of serving coffee was opened 
in London, and about the same time it was 
introduced in France. From then on it has 
spread until the amount now consumed the 
world over is simply enormous, especially in 
the United States, where we take somewhere 
near half of all that is grown. At first it 
came only from northern Africa, Arabia, 
and Turkey; then the Dutch began experi- 
menting and succeeded in cultivating it in 
Java, and the French in the West Indies. 
For a while these were the principal sources 
of supply. The story goes that in 1760 a 
Portuguese, Joao Alberto Castello Branco, 
planted a bush in Rio, and from that small 
start, thanks to her peculiarly favorable soil 

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THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

and climate, Brazil soon outstripped the 
others and took the lead. And it is in these 
uplands of the State of Sao Paulo that more 
than half of all of this enormous amount of 
coffee that is consumed in the world to-day- 
is produced. There are between fifteen and 
twenty thousand cafezals, or plantations, em- 
ploying hundreds of thousands of laborers, 
and some of the plantations are so vast that 
they grow millions of trees. Here it is that 
most of the immigrants flock. There is a 
million of Italians alone. 

The general contour of the country is not 
flat but rolling. In great patches the bushy 
little trees cover the hills and valleys in long, 
parallel rows, from six to eight feet high, for 
they are kept pruned to a certain height to 
facilitate cultivation. The leaves are dark 
green and glossy, somewhat resembling 
myrtle, only not so dry and thick; the flowers 
are white and grow in clusters from the axils 
of the branches ; the fruit, when ripe, is about 
the size of and resembles a dark red cherry, 
and grows in clusters, like the flowers, and 
the air is fragrant with perfume. No more 
beautiful sight could be imagined than one 
of these plantations in full bloom. Each of 

il84 



BRAZIL 

the red berries contains two coffee beans, em- 
bedded in a yellowish, sweetish pulp. The 
bean, in its natural shape, is convex on one 
side and flat on the other. As sold on the 
market, with the shell, pulp and skin removed 
by a mechanical process that requires an 
expensive outfit of machinery, the product is 
the result of a development in agricultural 
methods that is not surpassed in the wheat 
industry of Argentina or our own country, 
and which is very far ahead of that of the 
rubber industry in the north. It is said that 
no new trees have been planted since 1903 
because the production has been so great 
that the government has thought best to 
restrict it until the demand shall once more 
have equaled the supply. The reverse of this 
condition has existed for several years. 

The neighbors of the Paulistas in the State 
of Rio Grande do Sul are principally en- 
gaged (with Paraguay) in supplying the 
twenty or more millions of consumers in 
South America and growing numbers else- 
where, with the leaves from which the bev- 
erage is made that is known as yerba mate, 
or Paraguay tea, which those who drink it 
contend has all the stimulating and nourish- 

185 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

ing qualities of the tea we use, but none of 
its injurious effects. Next to coffee and 
rubber, this is the greatest of Brazil's sources 
of revenue. These southerners also raise 
cattle and sheep on a large scale — though not 
yet sufficiently large for export — and do a 
good deal of canning and manufacturing. 
Their principal seaport, Porto Alegre (Smil- 
ing Port), has a population of nearly 150,- 
000, and, as in Pernambuco and Rio, and 
all the big coast cities in fact, extensive har- 
bor improvements are under way. This city 
too is to have a system of masonry docks 
and hoisting machinery and new warehouses 
along the quay. A few miles north, and 
connected with Porto Alegre by railroad, is 
Sao Leopoldo, the port of a large German 
colony that was founded in the State nearly 
a hundred years ago. 

From Rio it is possible also to go by rail- 
road to Bello Horizonte, the remarkable capi- 
tal of Minas Geraes, the most densely popu- 
lated of all the Brazilian States. This city is 
unique in that it did not have its beginning in 
the usual way and get itself chosen as the 
capital; it was built only a few years ago 
on a previously unoccupied site for the very 

186 



BRAZIL 

purpose, and at a cost, for only the buildings 
owned by the government, of more than $30,- 
000,000. It is located in a lovely, wooded, 
farm-dotted valley, through the length of 
which flows a river, interrupted at inter- 
vals by cascades. Near the city, both sides 
of the stream have been converted into a 
delightful park. One of the avenues that 
run through the center of the city is named 
for its founder, Affonso Penna, and is a 
hundred and fifty feet wide and shaded by 
three rows of trees. The hotels are com- 
fortable, train service good, and the journey 
through a country of beautiful scenery and 
interesting people and towns. 

This is the great mining State of Brazil. 
Of it Marie Robinson Wright says: "Few 
countries can boast of such an abundance and 
variety of mineral resources as Minas Geraes, 
which derives its name, signifying General 
Mines, from the industry that gave it ex- 
istence, and which owes to this principal 
attraction the preponderance of its popula- 
tion." Gold was not discovered during the 
first two hundred years after settlement had 
been begun by the Portuguese, but, when it 
was at last discovered, the yield was very 

187 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

great. In 1792 the amount registered in Rio 
— and this record, of course, was incomplete — 
was 360,000 pounds in weight. An English 
authority has estimated the total output up 
to within recent years at £200,000,000 ster- 
ling. "Of all the fabulous tales related of 
bonanza princes," Mrs. Wright goes on to 
say, "the palm for extravagance belongs to 
the history of the early mining days in Brazil, 
when horses were shod with gold, when law- 
yers supported their pleadings before judges 
with gifts of what appeared at first sight to 
be the choicest oranges and bananas, but 
proved to be solid gold imitations, when 
guests were entertained at dinner by the dis- 
covery of gold pebbles in their soup instead 
of grains of corn, when nuggets were the 
most convenient means of exchange in the 
money market;" but here, as in some of our 
own mining regions, with the gradual ex- 
haustion of the surface deposits and the im- 
possibility of continuing by primitive meth- 
ods, mining came to be more and more 
neglected. Modern methods and machinery 
are once more bringing the industry into 
prominence, and a considerable amount of 
gold is even now being taken out by the 

188 



BRAZIL 

few companies that have already installed 
up-to-date plants. 

The diamond mines in the neighborhood of 
the old town of Diamantina (also easily ac- 
cessible by rail) have been famous since the 
first discoveries were made in 1727. In these 
parts several of the most valuable gems in the 
world are said to have been found — for 
instance, the Braganza, the richest of the 
Crown jewels of Portugal, the Regent, 
named in honor of Dom Joao VI, the 
Estrella do Sul (Star of the South), that 
weighed a hundred and twenty-five carats 
after lapidation and was purchased by the 
Rajah of Baroda, it is said, for $15,000,000, 
and the Dresden, which weighed sixty-five 
carats after lapidation and was also bought 
by an Indian prince. For many years, until 
the South African mines came into competi- 
tion, this was the chief source of the world's 
supply. The country is also rich in ame- 
thysts, tourmalines, topazes and aquamarines. 
The State of Bahia is still the principal source 
of the black diamond, known as the carbo- 
nado. The largest carbonado known was 
found there in 1835. It weighed 3150 carats. 



189 



Ill 

ARGENTINA 



NO nation of the southern continent is 
better qualified than Argentina to re- 
buke the stupid jest that refers to the 
Latin- American countries as opera bouffe re- 
publics. It has a domain one-third the size 
of the United States, or as large as the ter- 
ritory lying east of the Mississippi, with 
Texas added, stretching from tropic heat to 
antarctic cold, and possessing a frontage on 
the Atlantic as extensive as our own coast line 
from Portland, Maine, to Key West, Flor- 
ida. It has over 500,000,000 acres of its 
1,135,840 square miles of area available for 
the cultivation of life-sustaining products and 
distributed over vast, treeless, well-watered 
plains, every one of which is easily accessible 
to the seaboard with the simplest of railway 
construction. These plains have no such 

190 



ARGENTINA 

natural obstructions to transportation as our 
Alleghanies or Rockies, and have for their 
produce a much shorter haul to the European 
world of consumers. 

Argentina has the further advantage of 
over 18,000 miles of up-to-date railways ra- 
diating from its port cities, and five river sys- 
tems, one of which, La Plata, the outlet for 
the waters of the Parana and Uruguay, is 
second only to the Amazon among the world's 
great rivers. It is 180 miles wide at its 
mouth, and pours into the Atlantic a flood 
greater by eighty per cent, than that cast by 
the Mississippi into the Gulf of Mexico. 

The timber regions of the country are rich 
in structural and cabinet woods. It has a 
grazing industry that ranks second only to 
Australia in sheep, second only to the United 
States in cattle, and second only to the United 
States and Russia in horses. In 1910 it ex- 
ported to Europe 190,430 live animals and 
$130,000,000 worth of frozen beef, mutton, 
pork, hides, and other animal products. Its 
total foreign commerce amounted to $702,- 
664,810 in value. It has an agricultural 
output that places it in the first rank of ex- 
porters of maize and linseed, second to Rus- 

191 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

sia in the export of wheat, and among the 
leaders in corn, a soil that can grow still 
greater quantities of sugar, tobacco, rice, al- 
falfa, grapes, fruits, yerba mate (Paraguay- 
tea), olives, corn, barley, and oats, besides 
medicinal, textile, and tinctorial plants, en- 
abling her to export more foodstuffs, includ- 
ing meats and grains, than any other nation 
on the globe — a productiveness so great that 
farms are measured in some sections by the 
square league, instead of by the paltry acre, 
as with us, and grains are sold by the metric 
ton of 2205 pounds, instead of by the bushel. 
Its mountains contain profitably workable de- 
posits of gold, silver, and copper, and oil has 
been found in paying quantities. 

It has a metropolis and seaport (its cap- 
ital, Buenos Aires) reckoned as the sepond 
Latin city in the world, possessing a popula- 
tion of over a million and a quarter, and 
adorned with buildings, parks, surface im- 
provements, and evidences of wealth and 
culture that stamp it as one of the finest cities 
of the Western Hemisphere. 

It has a stable and enlightened government, 
constituted on the same general plan as our 
own, and advancing rapidly to a near ap- 

192 



ARGENTINA 

proximation to our own in efficiency. It has 
a history rich, in its later years, in traditions 
of statesmanship and patriotism, bearing on 
its roll of honor the names of such statesmen, 
soldiers, educators, and executives as Bel- 
grano, San Martin, Alvear, Puyrredon, Riva- 
davia, Mitre, and Sarmiento, names worthy 
of special reverence among a people familiar 
with the standards set bji Washington and 
Lincoln. In a word, with all this material 
greatness, and such a record cf energetic and 
enlightened adaptation to world progress, 
Argentina may, in the not distant future, 
turn the jest against its northern perpetra- 
tors; for a country with a population of 
seven millions, which could feed two hundred 
million people and give lodging to half that 
number, is a competitor to be reckoned with 
seriously in the struggle for commercial su- 
premacy. 

Such, then, is the country of superlatives 
that opens up before the visitor who enters 
at its gateway, Buenos Aires, and breathes 
in the wholesome, equable breezes from the 
pampas — the vast green plains that stretch 
away for hundreds of miles in three direc- 
tions; he agrees at once that the City of 

193 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

Good Airs was well named by Pedro de 
Mendoza when he planted his ill-fated settle- 
ment on its site in 1535. 

It is to be regretted that this wide-awake, 
rapidly growing community buys so much 
more largely in the European markets than 
ours. In 1910, of the total amount they paid 
for imports ($351,770,056), our share was 
only $48,418,892.. But then, as they point 
out, they are our competitors in the markets 
of Europe. Their cereals and beef and hides 
and wool have no place in the United States, 
a country that produces and exports the same 
things, and they manufacture no articles that 
we want; so it is only fair that they should 
deal with those who buy of them. When it 
came to a question of who should build their 
last two big battleships, however, they did fa- 
vor our shipyards with the contracts. Both 
of these are of the super-dreadnought type 
and have already been launched. 

The Parisian is pleased to say, "Paris is 
France"; with even greater significance may 
the Buenos Airean say that Buenos Aires is 
Argentina. Out of his pride in his great city, 
the Porteiio will tell one that Argentina really 
has but two parts, as a matter of fact: the 

194 



ARGENTINA 

one, Buenos Aires; the other — all the rest of 
the country — called El Campo (the Camp), 
regardless that he includes in this sweeping 
assertion such other railroad centers and 
ports as Rosario, La Plata, Parana, Tucu- 
man, Cordoba, or Bahia Blanca — all of them 
cities exceeding fifty thousand in population 
and one of them, Rosario, exceeding one hun- 
dred thousand. And, indeed, the Bonarenses 
may well be proud of their metropolis. One- 
fifth of the country's inhabitants is absorbed 
into its teeming life of industry and luxury; 
it is the crystallization of all that this mod- 
ernized young giant stands for in the world 
of commerce ; it is the greatest Spanish-speak- 
ing city in the world. 

Its dominant position was not achieved, 
however, without years of contention with 
other centers of industry in the country. Dur- 
ing the three hundred years of Spain's stifling 
economic policies in this, once the agricul- 
tural unit of her golden empire, Argentina 
made small progress. The settlements 
founded in Santiago (1553), in Tucuman 
(1565), and in Cordoba and Santa Fe 
(1573), by the immigration of Spaniards 
from Peru, Chile, and the early settlement 

195 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

of Buenos Aires, all led an isolated and 
neglected existence during the colonial period 
up to the year 1776, when Spain, awakened 
from her dream of endless mineral riches in 
South America to a realization of the im- 
portance of the fertile country of La Plata, 
and erected it into a separate viceroyalty, in- 
dependent of the Viceroyalty of Peru. The 
viceroys, freed from the poisoning influence 
of Andean gold lust, did much to develop a 
sense of nationalism among the scattered ag- 
ricultural centers. With the growth of this 
nationalism, the protests against Spain's re- 
pression increased until 1810, when the peo- 
ple asserted their right to an unrestricted, 
independent national life. May twenty-fifth 
of that year is their Fourth of July, and is 
perpetuated to-day in the name of the superb 
Avenida de Mayo in their capital city. 

During the formative period that followed, 
Argentine politics revolved chiefly about the 
question of Unitarianism or Federalism — 
whether the rich and progressive province at 
the gateway of the nation (Buenos Aires) 
should form a separate unit of government, 
or remain part of a confederation and be ac- 
corded the leading role in national affairs 

196 



ARGENTINA 

that its importance merited. In 1862 fed- 
eralism prevailed and the integrity of the 
Argentine Republic was assured, under the 
presidency of General Mitre. The capital 
was later removed from Santa Fe to Buenos 
Aires and the latter city erected into a fed- 
eral district (of some seventy square miles) 
somewhat similar to our own District of Co- 
lumbia. The capital of the Province of Bue- 
nos Aires, however, is La Plata, a few miles 
distant from the national capital, on the 
shores of the great river. 

This period marks the beginning of the 
real history of the Argentine nation. Under 
the enlightened statesmanship of Bartolome 
Mitre and Sarmiento, the two chief figures 
in Argentina's rapid development from this 
point, the great influx of British and German 
capital began. Immigration was encouraged 
for the working of the fields; a solid founda- 
tion was given to educational development; 
railroads were constructed, and the machinery 
of government made adequate to the vig- 
orous strides of the solidified nation. In the 
short space of time that has passed since 
1881, over two billions of dollars of British 
and German gold have been invested; some 

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eighteen thousand miles of well-equipped rail- 
ways have been constructed, almost wholly 
by English capital; immigration has doubled 
the population of the country so that now 
half its present inhabitants are foreign-born 
— during the last ten years alone two mil- 
lions have come in — and a thorough system 
of education has been perfected, embracing, 
among all sorts of primary, military, and in- 
dustrial institutions, three great universities, 
one of which, at Buenos Aires, graduated 
over five thousand young men last year and, 
with the University of Cordoba (founded in 
1613), ranks with Harvard and Yale. In 
1910 they celebrated the centennial anniver- 
sary of their independence with a superb 
industrial exposition that was a revelation 
even to themselves, and festivities that are 
said to have cost $20,000,000. 

The city of Buenos Aires has not the 
picturesque environment that adds so much 
to the natural beauty of the cities of Rio de 
Janeiro and Mexico, nor the harbor capac- 
ity of New York; nor are its culture and 
civic personality, perhaps, as deep-rooted as 
in Boston; it makes little pretension to the 
aristocracy of blood boasted by the still es- 

198 



ARGENTINA 

sentially Spanish Lima; nor has it yet at- 
tained such distinction as a national center 
of art, literature, and music as has the Bra- 
zilian capital. It may be best compared with 
Chicago, for it is conspicuously modern, its 
present development having been begun and 
achieved within the last quarter of a cen- 
tury, although the city itself is nearly four 
hundred years old, and is the industrial com- 
plement of an agricultural and pastoral ac- 
tivity even greater than that of our Middle 
West. Indeed, its banks and clearing houses 
are said to transact quite as much business 
as those of Chicago. 

The docks of Buenos Aires, like those of 
our great lake city, are most impressive; they 
represent an outlay of $50,000,000. Only 
fifteen years ago the visitor was bundled 
ashore in a rowboat and deposited on a 
marshy beach. Now his vessel enters one of 
the numerous basins of the vast dock sys- 
tem and confronts row upon row of massive 
masonry and cement wharves, behind which 
spreads a network of railway lines. In the 
background are public gardens with flowering 
bushes and statuary to beautify the approach 
to the city. For mile after mile, flanked by 

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a seemingly endless procession of great trans- 
Atlantic ships and up-river produce boats, 
these docks stretch their length, not in a se- 
ries of slips, as along the congested water- 
front in New York, but so arranged that the 
vessels can moor broadside to them and have 
their cargoes loaded or unloaded by enor- 
mous traveling cranes; and, without, lying at 
anchor in the river awaiting their turn for 
a berth, are many more — for this giant en- 
terprise, with towering grain elevators and a 
veritable forest of powerful cranes, already 
fails entirely to satisfy present needs. They 
are not only to be extended but so enlarged 
that they will accommodate vessels of the 
heaviest draft. 

Not even the New York wharves with 
their vast commerce give such a picture of 
vivid bustle. The big German "Cap" boats 
— Cap Ortegal, Cap Frio, and the rest; 
French, Spanish, and Italian liners with 
champagne, aperitives, opera companies, auto- 
mobiles and immigrants — always immigrants; 
Newcastle freighters unloading bolted sec- 
tions of steel bridges; up-river boats laden 
with yerba mate or fragrant oranges from 
Paraguay, and the aristocrats of these seas, 

200 



ARGENTINA 

the Royal Mails from England — all con- 
tribute to the pell-mell, reminding one of the 
blurred babel of tongues that whispers across 
the decks of the world's ships in the drowsy 
passage through the Suez Canal. 

And, parenthetically, a most telling com- 
mentary on our indifference to Argentine 
possibilities lies in the fact that of the many 
thousand vessels that transferred cargoes at 
these docks in 1910, only four bore the stars 
and stripes; whereas, prior to our Civil War 
(which, of course, absorbed our merchant ma- 
rine) — in 1852 — there were in the harbor of 
Buenos Aires six hundred vessels flying our 
flag, or more than double the number from 
all other nations combined. In those days the 
influence of our people over the commerce 
of the southern half of South America was 
predominant. A Pennsylvanian, William 
Wheelright, was looked upon as its father. 

On leaving the docks and driving up into 
the city, the visitor is at once impressed with 
the fact that Buenos Aires is not so wholly 
wrapped up in the purely material as is our 
commercial center on Lake Michigan. It has 
broadened along more aesthetic lines and is 
cultivating the graces, not alone the sordid 

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features, of cosmopolitanism. In the newer 
parts, particularly in the fashionable suburb 
of Belgrano, the buildings and shaded boule- 
vards and beautifully landscaped parks re- 
semble rather those of Paris; although it is 
not behind our own big cities in public utili- 
ties. Even in the business district there are 
no skyscrapers or elevated railroads to dis- 
turb the harmony of the architectural scheme ; 
not even the usual promiscuous, blatant ad- 
vertising posters are permitted to be dis- 
played until they have been censored by the 
proper official, and when approved they are 
affixed to ornamentally tinted and paneled 
billboards, erected for the purpose. So keen, 
indeed, are the Bonarenses to enhance the 
beauty of their city that a prize is offered 
each year for the handsomest structure to be 
erected. And yet there is much that is pos- 
sessed of the charm of antiquity. The occa- 
sional glimpses of blossoms and foliage one 
gets through doorways opening into the court- 
yards, or patios, of the old Spanish houses 
is most refreshing in the midst of so much 
that is modern. 

It is from Paris, too, that they have ac- 
quired their culture, and their taste in dress 

202 



ARGENTINA 

and amusements and in literature and art. 
They buy their clothes in Paris and sip their 
French liqueurs in the cafes in true Parisian 
style, and they are entertained by opera and 
comedy companies from the best Parisian 
theaters. They have absorbed into their city 
life an Italian colony that exceeds in num- 
bers the population of Genoa, and more 
Spaniards than could be crowded into To- 
ledo, besides a multitude of British and Ger- 
mans and a goodly sprinkling from the rest 
of Europe, and even Asia. Having taken so 
much from France and Italy, and being 
Spanish in descent and in speech, the over- 
tone of the city is distinctly Latin, while 
their industrial and governmental institutions 
bear the mark of the Anglo-Saxon. Next to 
the Italian and Spanish, the British colony is 
the largest. Then follow the German and 
the French. The North Americans are small 
in number ; less than three hundred responded 
to a recent effort to organize a North Amer- 
ican Society. 

The Bonarenses, however, like the deni- 
zens of the Camp, are intensely patriotic and 
passionately insist upon a recognition of their 
own distinct personalities. They are the Por- 

203 



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tenos of the great Argentine nation. Nor 
do they and their compatriots throughout 
the country welcome the inference that they 
are Spanish; they are Argentine. One asks 
a child of the streets whether he speaks Span- 
ish or Italian. He answers haughtily (in the 
former language) : "At home we all talk Ar- 
gentine." Strangely enough, their jingoism 
is not offensive; it is displayed with an 
amiable candor that is quite disarming. Not 
satisfied with being Argentine from top to 
toe, they seek to Argentinize even the tran- 
sient guest. The rabid Argentinism of the 
Porteno, and his success in amalgamating the 
kaleidoscopic horde of Europeans and Asiat- 
ics living in his city, is illustrated by the an- 
swer of another youthful immigrant who, 
unable to deny that he was born in Genoa, 
murmured apologetically, "I was so little." 

One of their leading daily newspapers, 
La Prensa, which has the handsomest news- 
paper building in existence, displays its 
patriotism by devoting a large part of its 
home to public uses. At its own expense it 
provides physicians and a consulting room, 
where the poor can have medical attention 
free, a law office where those who cannot af- 

204 



,.,. ..,.,..(,. , . .... ^jrv^-r 







COLON THEATER, BUENOS AIRES. 




FEDERAL CAPITOL, BUENOS AIRES. 



ARGENTINA 

ford to pay for it can have legal advice, an 
excellent museum of the manufactures and 
products of the country, a free technical li- 
brary for the use of students, a large hall 
for public meetings, a charming salon des 
fetes, in which literary, scientific, and chari- 
table entertainments are given. This paper 
has a circulation of more than 150,000. So 
have La Nation and La Argentina, the two 
other big morning dailies. There are 225 
periodicals published in the capital all to- 
gether. 

In this most cosmopolitan of cities the for- 
eigners foregather in little worlds of their 
own. Most are represented by newspapers 
published in their own languages, most have 
clubhouses, more or less pretentious. On 
the same evening one season recently "The 
Merry Widow" was produced in Spanish, 
French, and Italian in as many different 
theaters; and there are all sorts of places of 
amusement where foreigners can enjoy them- 
selves, each after his own fashion — from an 
immense artificial ice skating rink (a very 
fashionable resort, by the way) to a tropical 
coffee house, from a golf or race course to 
a pool room or bowling alley, from the most 

205 



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attractive and elegantly equipped of modern 
cafes to a little French domino parlor or 
German beer saloon, from a magnificent 
opera house to a cheap vaudeville or moving- 
picture theater. It is said that the fore- 
most European artists are as likely to visit 
Argentina as the United States, and often 
do, and that many, of all but the first rank 
in their own countries and who do not come 
to North America at all, visit Buenos Aires 
regularly and present European successes 
long before they are seen in New York. 

Their great opera house, the Colon, that 
cost $10,000,000 and occupies a whole square, 
is one of the most beautiful in the world. 
There is none in New York or Chicago, or 
any of our cities, to compare with it. It is of 
French design and built of stone, and the in- 
terior is finished in white marble, gold-bronze 
ornamentations and rich red drapery and up- 
holstery. It is not quite as large as the 
Metropolitan in New York, but, as in the 
Metropolitan, the two lower tiers of boxes 
are occupied by the families of the "Four 
Hundred," for their grand opera down there 
is just as much of a social function with 
them as it is with the smart set in our great- 

206 



ARGENTINA 

est city; and, as their season is in July and 
August — winter months with them — not a 
few of the singers that are heard at the Met- 
ropolitan later on are heard there in their 
season. Above the boxes are two balconies 
and a gallery where the gods congregate 
and howl for encores for all the world like 
our own. It appears that they are not very 
fond of Wagner and the German music, these 
Bonarenses, but are keen for the Italian and 
French; so, aside from the opera, competent 
French and Italian companies are brought 
over every year for long engagements at 
other theaters. Also there are French opera 
comique, Italian farce, and English musical 
comedy companies, French cafe chantant, 
English music hall and our own vaudeville 
entertainers without end, and dramas, even 
Shakespearean occasionally, and the other 
classes of performances, following each other 
at the many theaters continually. 

Club life is one of the most attractive 
features. The Britishers (the heaviest in- 
vestors of foreign capital), of course, have 
their inevitable cricket, polo, and races — at 
Hurlingham, near the city — and have erected 
a substantial country clubhouse, devoted 

207 



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largely to the ritualistic five o'clock tea. The 
scene on the broad verandas and well-kept 
lawns is brilliant in the afternoon, with the 
white lace gowns of the women and the white 
flannel and broadside panamas of the men. 
As the guest looks on at the leisurely game 
of cricket and tea — for these rites are sol- 
emnized together by the comfortable Briton 
— he can easily imagine himself at Shanghai, 
Hong Kong, Singapore, or Cape Town, 
where the same function is taking place at the 
same hour of the day, on club grounds almost 
identically the same, and to the accompani- 
ment of the same elaborate conversation: 
"Well played, old chap." The Germans, 
Italians, and Spanish also have luxurious 
clubhouses, and for the transient visitor the 
Club de Residentes Estranjeros affords a 
delightful retreat. There is even a big, hand- 
some building for the Y.M.C.A. 

Among the fifty or more social organiza- 
tions in Buenos Aires, the Jockey Club is the 
Argentine cercle par excellence. Its home 
on Calle Florida is of a splendor unsurpassed 
in clubdom. The guest who is fortunate 
enough to enjoy its courtesies will be im- 
pressed by the perfect taste and sumptuous- 

208 



ARGENTINA 

ness of its appointments; the superb marble 
stairway, the banquet hall, and the famous 
pictures and sculptures are equaled in but 
few of the palaces of Europe. Its wealth, 
derived from an initiation fee of $4000 and 
annual dues of $1500 for each member, and 
a "rake-off" of ten per cent, of the amounts 
wagered at its racetrack, together with gate 
receipts, accumulate so rapidly that it is a 
source of genuine embarrassment to the gov- 
erning board. 

A short time ago the club voted to de- 
vote its surplus to the purchase of a dozen 
blocks in the heart of the city, the idea be- 
ing to transform the tract into a beautiful 
boulevard. It would have cost nearly $14,- 
000,000 in our money. The project was 
abandoned, not because of the cost, but on 
the ground of impracticability. During the 
racing season, held under the auspices of the 
Club at Palermo Park, the Porteno is seen at 
his best. Paris gowns and picture hats are 
displayed in profusion in the grandstand, 
lawns, and luxurious victorias and automo- 
biles that line the course, and with the correct 
dress and animation of the men, and the 
prodigality everywhere in evidence (last sea- 

209 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

son $25,000,000 was placed on the horses), 
the scene takes on an aspect truly Parisian. 

As might be expected in such a vigorously 
modern city, the severest of the restrictions 
on social intercourse familiar in Latin capitals 
are here impatiently thrust aside. In the five 
o'clock parade of the fashionables that wends 
its way toward the beautiful Palermo Park 
on Sundays, there are no closed carriages or 
dark mantillas to conceal the allurements of 
the sefioritas, although many may still hud- 
dle demurely at the sides of their duefias 
while they distribute the most decorous of 
smiles among their eager acquaintances of 
the opposite sex. Here palm-bordered Sar- 
miento Avenue is crowded with carriages and 
motor cars six, often eight, rows deep, two 
stationary in the center and two moving on 
either side, in which ride as smartly gowned 
women as may be seen anywhere in America. 
In the same throng glimpses may be caught 
of reigning music-hall favorites, at whose 
sides are usually to be found care-free horse- 
men just in from the Camp, mounted on 
superb stallions heavy with silver trappings, 
and generally with an air of somewhat less 
sophisticated enjoyment of the event. 

210 



ARGENTINA 

There is a prodigality about the Porteno 
in his pleasures that staggers the visitor from 
the North. Backed by an almost limitless 
wealth from cattle ranch or plantation, he 
scatters his pesos with a princely hand. And, 
of course, there is the obverse of the picture. 
There is the under world here, peopled 
largely by immigration from the centers of 
European unrest, in which there is to be 
found an extreme of destitution. This is the 
breeding place of anarchistic ideas, that fre- 
quently find expression in violence and that 
are surely becoming one of the city's most 
serious problems. 

The zest for amusement among all classes 
finds many outlets. Strolling along the Calle 
Florida, or the Calles Cangallo, Esmeralda, 
Cuyo, Maipo, and other well-paved, brilliantly 
illuminated streets of the theater district, 
after the fever of the business day has sub- 
sided, one drops in at the "English Bar," the 
"Bierhalle," "Confiteria," or "Cafe Parisien," 
and is sure to find a compatriot to join him 
in the refreshment of his predilection. Or, 
for the more solid enjoyment of dinner, the 
visitor, whether French, North American, 
Briton, or Turk, can find his favorite national 

211 



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dishes excellently served — at the Restaurant 
Charpentier, where an orchestra, really good, 
will for the moment take the homesick 
Parisian back to his native boulevards; or 
at the "Sportsman," where the North Amer- 
ican is beguiled from his nostalgia by 
Sousa's marches, perhaps, or by biograph 
pictures of steeple-chasers and Oriental 
dancers; or at Monsch's Restaurant, which 
specializes in the Briton's needs — where, with 
a look of acute understanding, the head waiter 
will permit the guest to select his own Eng- 
lish mutton chop or steak from the glass- 
doored ice chest. 

The outdoor cafe life is not as well known, 
so narrow are the streets; even Calle Flor- 
ida, which is the essentially fashionable shop- 
ping street of the central town, is lamentably 
narrow. With the exception of the Avenida 
de Mayo, which runs from the plaza con- 
taining the Cathedral and President's palace 
to the new chambers of Congress, and divides 
the city into its northern and southern sec- 
tions, and the Avenida Alvear, which leads 
from the main part of the city to Palermo 
Park, flanked with costly homes and inter- 
spersed with gardens and plazas that lend a 

212 



ARGENTINA 

wealth of verdure and flowers to the broad 
avenue, the streets are so narrow that in the 
business section vehicles are required by city 
ordinances to move in the same direction, 
down one street and up the next. But in this 
splendid, stately Avenida de Mayo of hers, 
which, except in appearance, has the charac- 
teristics of the business part of New York's 
Fifth Avenue from Madison Square to the 
Park, Buenos Aires has a thoroughfare that 
rivals Rio's Avenida Central in beauty, and, 
with its finer hotels and cafes and French 
architecture, possesses even more of the at- 
tractions of a Parisian boulevard. 

Buenos Aires is not a city that calls for 
the usual precautions taken by travelers. All 
the creature comforts may be had here, al- 
though, it must be confessed, at a cost greatly 
in excess of prices familiar to North Amer- 
icans. There are good physicians and den- 
tists, and no less than sixteen hospitals — one 
of which, the British Hospital, is a mag- 
nificently equipped institution, and the one 
patronized by the American colony. There 
are electric street cars (which carried 125,- 
000,000 passengers last year), splendid trains 
that carry passengers in thoroughly modern 

213 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

and well-served coaches to almost every part 
of the settled country, first-class carriages, 
taxicabs, hotels, department stores, and shops 
of every description. 



ii 

Leaving the capital for a general tour 
through Argentina, the visitor will soon come 
to appreciate the Porteiio's division of the 
republic into the two parts : Buenos Aires and 
El Campo. For the greater part, the Camp 
is a vast plain, covering five hundred million 
acres of flat, fertile soil, with scarcely a nat- 
ural hillock higher than those thrown up by 
the ants, and no depression more marked 
than those which the cartwheels have plowed 
— stretching from horizon to horizon, north, 
west, and south — vast, silent, and awe-inspir- 
ing in the majesty of its enormous extent 
and productiveness — the calm, inexhaustible 
bosom which suckles the prodigious infant on 
the Plata. 

These pampas are the homes of the es- 
tancieros, the name given to the masters of 
the great breeding ranches and plantations. 
Some possess estancias that are really feudal 

214 



ARGENTINA 

in extent; one, in Patagonia, is as large as 
the State of Rhode Island. Their homes and 
outbuildings are about the only objects that 
give a human touch to the mile upon mile 
of cattle ranges, of green maize and golden 
wheat, of purple alfalfa and vivid blue lin- 
seed flower, unless one comes upon the black 
mud hut of the colono, or small farmer who 
works the field on shares. An occasional 
clump of man-planted trees may also be met 
with, and on the fringe of the pampas are a 
few widely scattered Indian settlements; but 
there is little to modify the metaphor of the 
ocean so universally used to describe these 
almost limitless plains. Even the. seagulls 
sweep inland for hundreds of miles to add to 
its effectiveness. When the very heart of the 
country is reached, the traveler may scan the 
horizon from every point of the compass and 
know that in every direction what lies beyond 
is exactly the same. 

The seasons, which are much like our own, 
although exactly the reverse in their occur- 
rence, bring their appropriate activities. Dur- 
ing the busy harvest period the Camp takes 
on an aspect of bustle which convinces the 
traveler that this great business republic has 

215 



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cast the word "manana" (to-morrow) for- 
ever from its "bright lexicon of youth." Har- 
vesting machines cutting a swath, not four 
or six, but fourteen feet in width through 
the wheat fields, threshers with powerful 
blasts that pile the straw in great stacks, 
and on the ranches the great armies of 
horned cattle add the convincing touch to the 
scene of prosperity. 

"A recent census," says the Bulletin of the 
Pan American Union (July, 1911), "shows 
that in Argentina there are over 29,000,000 
bovine cattle, 7,500,000 horses, about 500,000 
mules and 300,000 asses, over 67,000,000 
sheep, almost 4,000,000 goats and 1,403,591 
pigs, with a total value of about $700,000,- 
000, gold. ... It is an interesting fact 
that all the animal food so abundantly sup- 
plied by this country is the result of stock- 
ing this incomparably rich land with animals 
introduced from European sources. In pre- 
Columbian times the only domestic animals 
possessed by the natives were the alpaca and 
llama. The alpaca was grown for its flesh and 
its fleece, while the llama was used as a beast 
of burden. In 1535 the Spaniards brought 
in horses and asses, and, shortly afterward, 

216 





PRIZE WINNERS FROM "THE CAMP. 



ARGENTINA 

bovine cattle were taken to Asuncion (Para- 
guay) by a Portuguese. In 1569 four thou- 
sand head were distributed along the regions 
of the Rio de la Plata. Sheep came later. 
At one time, when the natives were exceed- 
ingly hostile, a few horses and asses were 
abandoned on the pampas, and from that 
stock have descended the innumerable herds 
which to-day cover the almost limitless plains ; 
. . . but during recent years Argentina 
has imported the best animals obtainable and 
has bred with the direct intention of improv- 
ing the stock as much as possible." 

With the cattle rides the gaucho, the cow- 
boy of the pampas. Dressed in smart poncho 
(a sort of cape, with a hole for the head to 
go through), and bright-hued zombachos, or 
wide Turkish trousers, tight-fitting boots, 
and sombrero, and sitting astride his sad- 
dle, richly ornamented with silver, he pre- 
sents a sight worth seeing. To the gaucho 
the Camp is indebted for its only romance 
and picturesqueness ; he has given to it its 
songs and tales of adventure, its tragedies 
and the brightness of its life. Lithe and 
graceful, he is a consummate horseman and 
rivals his Texan counterpart in feats of 

217 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

horsemanship and skill with the lasso. He 
is proud, simple-minded, and faithful in his 
friendships, but when aroused to anger by a 
slight or by deceit, he is as elemental in his 
vengefulness — for there is a strain of the old 
fierce Tupi- Guar any in the blood of most of 
them — as the early types of his race who 
ranged the pampas during the so-called me- 
diaeval period of Argentine history. Need- 
less to say, he has contributed his quota in the 
wars of the republic and has furnished the 
inspiration for many a stirring drama in the 
literature of the country. 

The story of the pampas and the life and 
habits of their workers and of the denizens 
nature has sent to share in their richness, has 
been told by many writers of our day, notably 
by W. H. Koebel, an Englishman, in his re- 
cently published "Modern Argentina." It 
is the story of a great country and a great 
business enterprise that is fast spreading its 
activity farther and farther north, west, and 
south — to the north, toward the still savage 
Chaco country and the mountainous provinces 
of Jujuy, Salta, and Catamarca; to the west, 
toward the Andean uplands, and southward 
to the federal territories in the region that 

218 



ARGENTINA 

was once referred to on the maps as Pata- 
gonia. Gradually the cattle ranch is being 
pushed farther afield to give way to agricul- 
ture, while the ranchmen in their turn are 
penetrating the field of the timber industry. 
There is practically no village life in Ar- 
gentina; there is no middle class between the 
lordly estanciero and the laborer. The very 
necessary element of the small farmer, work- 
ing his own independent property, is grad- 
ually being introduced, as the owners of the 
great estates are beginning to subdivide their 
holdings. When this new element shall have 
been thoroughly absorbed into the common- 
wealth, and the nation shall have acquired 
a "volk" the prosperity of Argentina will 
be assured for all time. The development 
of the country is still in its infancy; for 
years to come there will be room for an 
increasing influx of capital and men who 
can take part in the most modern and great- 
est wealth-producing enterprise on the globe. 
So far the English and Germans are the 
chief among the foreign capitalists who have 
sought out this present-day Eldorado. The 
better acquaintance with Argentina and the 
other countries to the south of us, so intel- 

219 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

ligently and industriously fostered by the Pan 
American Union at Washington, will, it is to 
be hoped, induce a North American financial 
invasion of Argentina, an invasion that will 
be more than welcomed by the "Yankis" of 
the South. 

The traveler who takes* the seven-hundred- 
mile journey westward through the Camp, 
luxuriously housed in the coaches of the 
Great Western Railroad, comes upon a dif- 
ferent scene and a different life when he 
reaches the ancient city of Mendoza in the 
foothills of the Andes. Here it was that San 
Martin recruited and organized his Army of 
Liberation, the army with which, emerging 
suddenly from its isolated hiding place, he 
startled the world by his crossing of the 
Andes to fall upon the unsuspecting Span- 
ish. Mendoza is now the center of the wine 
and fruit industry. It is a thriving, well- 
supplied little city, with a population of be- 
tween thirty and forty thousand, comfortable 
hotels, a theater, and a broad boulevard of 
its own, overhung with trees and named for 
the great revolutionary leader, where they 
have their band concerts and afternoon car- 
riage parade just as they do in Buenos Aires. 

220 



ARGENTINA 

Only here, in their rather more dusky com- 
plexions, lots of the raven-haired, black-eyed 
occupants of the carriages show traces of In- 
dian descent. 

The development of the wine trade is in 
keeping with the phenomenal progress of the 
rest of the country. Although the great bulk 
of the product is not of the highest quality, 
the presses turn out each year enormous 
quantities that bear the labels of Bordeaux, 
Burgundy, Moselle, and Muscatel, produced 
from the very best imported vines. Other 
fruits have been found to grow equally well 
in this section: peaches, pears, and plums 
reach a high state of culture, while apples, 
quinces, and cherries do very well. It is the 
boast of the Argentino that his country is 
capable of producing every conceivable kind 
of fruit, and it is not an idle boast. 

At this point — Mendoza — a change of car 
is made to the less comfortable narrow-gauge 
road that takes the traveler through the 
fastnesses of the Andes. The route leads 
first through the peach orchards and vine- 
yards, with the snow peaks easily distin- 
guishable in the background. The Mendoza 
River, fed by the melting snows on the moun- 

221 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

tain tops, tumbles along its way and is 
crossed and re-crossed many times en route. 
Distant about, one hundred miles, one comes 
to the Puente del Inca, the famous natural 
bridge spanning a chasm one hundred and 
fifty feet in width, about which are many na- 
tive legends of Incarial times, for the bridge 
formed part of the great system of roads 
built by the Incas. A little farther on, mount- 
ing to a still higher altitude, the station of 
Las Cuevas is reached, the last stop in Ar- 
gentine territory, and the entrance to the 
tunnel through the mountain, half a mile be- 
low the Uspallata Pass — an engineering feat 
deserving of a chapter by itself. The eleva- 
tion here is in excess of ten thousand feet, 
and the scene one of impressive grandeur, 
fascinating in the kaleidoscope of color that 
floods the gorges and the giant peaks. 

Above, at the Cumbre, as the pass at the 
top is called, if one forsakes the comforts of 
the passenger coach for mule-back, he can 
view the now world-famous "Christ of the 
Andes," a bronze figure of the Prince of 
Peace rising to a height of twenty-six feet 
above its massive granite pedestal. It was 
erected to commemorate the peace treaty that 

222 



ARGENTINA 

brought to an end the long-continued dif- 
ferences between Chile and Argentina. Grow- 
ing out of the boundary dispute, this con- 
troversy had become more and more acute as 
the long-neglected Patagonian territory in- 
creased in promise. The boundary, finally 
fixed in 1902, by Sir Thomas Holdich's com- 
mission, runs along the summit of the An- 
dean ridge. On the base of the monument 
a tablet bears the words: "Sooner shall 
these mountains crumble to dust than the 
people of Argentina and Chile break the 
peace to which they have pledged themselves 
at the feet of Christ the Redeemer." 

From Caracoles, the Chilean terminus of 
the tunnel, the Transandino-Chileno carries 
the traveler to the station of Los Andes. 
From here to the port city of Valparaiso, 
Chile, the route is over the Chilean State 
Railroad, which is of standard gauge and 
passes through some rich and fertile valleys 
on its way toward the Pacific. 



in 

To the east of the Cordilleras, and south 
of the river Negro, stretches the territory 

223 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

long known as Patagonia, first in swelling 
plateaux and then flattening out into a con- 
tinuation of the upper level pampas. This 
is now the scene of Argentina's advancing 
sheep industry. For Patagonia, east of the 
Andean summits, and the east half of Tierra 
del Fuego were awarded to Argentina by 
the boundary arbitrator, King Edward VII, 
following the report of Sir Thomas Holdich's 
commission, and is now divided into the Fed- 
eral Territories of Rio Negro, Chubut, and 
Santa Cruz. The land of Patagonia ? so 
named by the early explorers from the big 
feet (pat a goas) of the Tehuelche Indians, 
is now reached by steamer to Punta Arenas 
in Magellan Strait, the southernmost city 
on the globe, for the railways of Argentina 
have not yet penetrated this country to any 
considerable extent. In climate it ranges 
from the temperate to extreme cold, like that 
of northern Michigan in the winter months. 
From the time of Darwin, who first took 
the country out of the category of terras 
incognitas, Patagonia has lost most of its 
mystery and is now being settled by the di- 
verted immigration from Buenos Aires. The 
Scots, English, and Germans have taken up 

224 



ARGENTINA 

large allotments of land, and many New Zea- 
land sheep men have come over to add their 
skill to the leading industry. There are also 
colonies of Boers and Jews. 

The Fuegian Archipelago, at the south- 
ern extremity of South America, covers a 
territory as large as Nebraska. A tortuous, 
wind-swept labyrinth of waterways separates 
the hundreds of islands that constitute this 
group. The largest is Tierra del Fuego, 
half as large as Illinois. It is divided lon- 
gitudinally between Chile and Argentina, by 
far the larger and more valuable portion hav- 
ing been awarded to the former by the Royal 
Arbitrator. The name was given to the archi- 
pelago by Magellan, when he saw the trails 
of smoke from the signal fires of the natives 
who followed his epoch-making course through 
the strait that now bears his name. Very lit- 
tle of the Fuegian country is under cultiva- 
tion, although thousands of sheep graze over 
its rich valleys and verdant plains. The 
southernmost point, Cape Horn (in Chilean 
territory), is a monster rock, bleak and for- 
bidding, against which the antarctic storms 
beat with such terrific force that, in the old 
days of sailing vessels, it was called the head- 

225 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

stone of the mariners' most populous grave- 
yard. 

A vastly different scene awaits the traveler 
who penetrates into the tropical wilds of the 
northern territories of Argentina. Going 
aboard one of the fine steamers of Nicholas 
Mihanovitch — the kings of the river traffic — 
at Buenos Aires, the traveler follows the 
course of the Parana, which is the main water 
highway of Argentina. The trip will take 
him through the richest provinces of the 
Camp, past the busy miniature Buenos Aires, 
the city of Rosario, which is the port of 
shipment for the grain of this region, and 
up into the tropical scenery and mystery of 
the Chaco and Misiones territories, opening 
up vistas of prodigious natural growths and 
riotous beauty, differing in every way from 
the somber majesty of the Fuegian country. 
The Chaco and the territory of Formosa, 
adjoining it on the north, are still almost 
wholly occupied by uncivilized Indians. Up 
to the present time this region has been ex- 
ploited chiefly for the wood of the quebracho 
(qui-bra-hacha — axe-breaker) tree, which 
yields the best quality of tannin and timber 

226 



ARGENTINA 

for railroad ties; it is richer in the former 
product than any other tree yet discovered. 

The picturesqueness of the Parana River 
scenery along its upper courses has excited 
enthusiastic descriptions from all the trav- 
elers who have penetrated this marvelous 
country. A thousand miles up the river, in 
Misiones, near the point where Argentina, 
Paraguay, and Brazil meet, are located the 
famous Iguazii Falls. The great cascade, 
fifty feet higher and with a lateral extent 
1250 feet greater than Niagara, lies in the 
midst of a primeval forest. The enormous 
volume of water bursts through a series of 
thickly wooded islands with a roar that is all 
the more impressive to the spectator because 
of the solitude that reigns throughout this 
scantily populated region. The hand of man 
has done nothing here — no attempt has been 
made to harness the mighty power; nature 
has been left alone to revel in utter abandon. 



IV 

URUGUAY 

ONE of the first inquiries that engages 
the mind of the visitor to Uruguay 
and Argentina is why the great body 
of water that separates the two countries — 
apparently an arm of the sea — should not be 
called the Gulf of La Plata. After a brief 
stay in this region of great cities, great pro- 
ductiveness, and great opportunities, it will 
probably occur to him that dwellers among 
such great things could be satisfied with noth- 
ing less than an estuary of the broad Atlan- 
tic to serve as a river for their capitals. If 
the Parana and Uruguay — mighty rivers 
which rank in size immediately behind the 
Mississippi — had joined their floods some 
miles above Buenos Aires, instead of flowing 
separately into La Plata, a stream of un- 
questionable status might have satisfied their 
demands; but the God of Waters willed oth- 
erwise, evidently not anticipating the great- 

228 



URUGUAY 

ness of these people and their illimitable am- 
bition. 

The exact point at which La Plata River 
merges with the Atlantic is also a matter of 
speculation among geographers. For all 
practical purposes, however, Montevideo, the 
capital, metropolis, and chief port of Uru- 
guay, lies just beside this phenomenon. One 
can say, therefore, that the eastern side of the 
little peninsula on which the main city is built 
faces the ocean, while the southern and west- 
ern fronts, bordering the bay of the actual 
port, look upon the river Plata. 

Taking the night boat at Buenos Aires, 
one arrives in Montevideo in the early morn- 
ing after a pleasant ride of just a hundred 
miles diagonally across the river, and is im- 
mediately impressed with the picturesqueness 
of El Cerro, an ancient fortress that still 
poses as the guardian of the entrance of the 
river. Much more important to-day, how- 
ever, is the lighthouse that rises from this 
height. Entering the port the visitor comes 
upon a modern city of almost four hundred 
thousand inhabitants, possessed of all the at- 
tributes of the present-day metropolis; an 
adequate and up-to-date system of docks, 

229 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

fine business blocks, public buildings, plazas, 
boulevards, and broad streets laid out on the 
checkerboard scheme, sewer, water, and light- 
ing systems, and extensive and well-managed 
electric tramway lines. 

To the Buenos Airean, naturally enough, 
Montevideo is a second Brooklyn, for the 
"ferry" trip of a hundred miles is not in- 
congruous where people think in superla- 
tives. Here the Buenos Airean may come, 
after a period of consuming activity in his 
own more closely built city, for rest and soul 
expansion among the leisurely and dignified 
Montevideans, and, at the expense of his 
neighbor, even permit himself a bit of friendly 
chaff in which he might venture to use the 
word "soporific." The Montevidean by no 
means resents the imputation. There is no 
resentment because, although a restful at- 
mosphere does pervade the city, there is not 
the slightest taint of stagnation. The Mon- 
tevidean is conscious that his sturdy, vig- 
orous, and even bellicose race has built up a 
nation unique in South America in its prom- 
ise of material prosperity; that his country 
is among the richest in the quality and varied 
productiveness of its soil of any on the con- 

200 



URUGUAY 

tinent, and that his city, housing a third of 
the country's population, is the pivot of the 
nation's astonishing commercial activity and 
one of the most healthful and delightful res- 
idence cities in the world. 

Montevideo was founded in 1726, but re- 
mained a comparatively unimportant way sta- 
tion until some thirty years ago, when it 
began to imbibe the modernism of its big 
rivals in Brazil and Argentina. To-day it is 
almost as cosmopolitan as Buenos Aires, the 
Italian element predominating among the 
foreigners, with the British preeminent as 
investors of capital, as in the latter city. To 
the superb Solis Theater come all the Euro- 
pean companies that appear in Buenos Aires; 
club life is best represented in the Club Uru- 
guay and the English Club, situated on oppo- 
site sides of the Plaza Matriz; and afternoon 
tea has come to be an important feature of the 
social life, several tea houses being now dis- 
tributed over the leisure sections of the city. 

The pride of the Montevidean is Prado 
Park. He has made of it one of the fairest 
gardens imaginable — its lakes and rolling 
lawns and great variety of trees and flower- 
ing bushes, its intersecting avenues of tow- 

231 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

ering eucalyptus trees rivaling Japan's fa- 
mous avenue of cryptomerias, on the road to 
Nikko, all give pleasure to the city's thou- 
sands, who, like Parisians, seek the country 
scenes for their holiday amusements. Driving 
along Agraciado Road and other plane-tree- 
shaded avenues, the visitor reaches either of 
the pleasure suburbs of Colon or Pocitos. 

In these excursions he has an excellent op- 
portunity to note the varied styles of architec- 
ture coming into vogue in the more progres- 
sive cities of South America; they range from 
the comfortable bungalow of the British resi- 
dents, to that strange development of the 
old Spanish home (the quint a) in which the 
wealthy Spanish- Americans love to house 
themselves on the outskirts of the cities. Un- 
til recent years the Spanish house in town 
and country was bare and unlovely on the 
outside; its beauty and richness were con- 
fined to the interior surroundings of the 
patio, where, in feudal privacy, the family 
secluded itself. To-day, in the new era of 
civic pride and the freer association of society 
in the modern boulevard and cafe life, the 
adornment is extended to the outside, and 
the effort made, by the addition of pinnacles 

232 




SOLIS THEATER, MONTEVIDEO. 




CAGANCHA PLAZA, MONTEVIDEO. 



URUGUAY 

and towers and much delicate tinting, to add 
to the attractiveness of the "city beautiful." 
In the business sections, of course, the mod- 
ern architecture corresponds for the most 
part with the type seen in the great cities of 
Europe and North America. 

In October, when the summer comes into 
these latitudes south of the Equator, the 
quintas assume a most entrancing aspect. 
Some of them, set in the midst of gardens 
many acres in extent, are veritable haunts of 
delight. Toll has been levied upon every 
resource to add to their charm. The gardens 
are inclosed within hedges that blaze with 
the color of the hedge-rose, honeysuckle, 
bougainvillea, wistaria, and other creeping 
vines. Inside, forming a background, may 
be seen a goodly growth of ivy-covered oaks 
or chestnut trees. Within, nearer the fairy- 
like home, and in the random of artistic dis- 
order, are many flowering bushes and trees — 
lilacs mingling their scent with magnolia, 
orange, myrtle, and mimosa— while the lawns 
are carpeted with a brilliant profusion of 
periwinkles, pansies, marigolds, arum lilies, 
and carnations, the whole yielding up the de- 
lights of its ever changing fragrance as the 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

wondering guest wanders about in company 
with his courtly host and hostess. 

In entire harmony with this perfection of 
nature is the beauty of the women. They are 
justly famous. To the far-famed grace and 
natural Spanish stateliness of her sisters 
throughout South America, the Uruguayan 
senorita adds a freshness of complexion and 
sprightliness of temperament that go to make 
a most bewitching consummation of feminine 
charm. Her praises are sung by all visitors; 
not less appreciative, her own kith and kin 
liken her, in their poetic way, to all pleasant 
things from a dove to. the moon. 

It is with genuine regret that the traveler 
leaves the hospitable capital for a trip 
through the country; but he will soon dis- 
cover that the delightful climate (like that of 
Tennessee, but without the snows of winter) 
is characteristic of Uruguay as a whole. 
From the capital radiate some fifteen hun- 
dred miles of good railways penetrating Bra- 
zil at several points, and also tapping the 
commerce along the Uruguay River. 

The country he will see is one great roll- 
ing pasture as large as all New England, 
and with occasional ridges of mountains. 

234 



URUGUAY 

None of these, however, exceeds two thou- 
sand feet in height. Until recently Uruguay 
was given over almost entirely to the raising 
of cattle and sheep; now it promises great 
strides in products of the soil. Indeed, it is 
the boast of the Uruguayan that not an acre 
of his country's 72,000 square miles of terri- 
tory is unproductive. Here can be seen 
growing corn, wheat, and potatoes, and a 
great impetus has of late been given to viti- 
culture — and there is no fear of either drought 
or frost. So far, however, only about three 
per cent, of the territory is under cultivation 
in foodstuffs. In 1909 Montevideo handled 
imports to the value of $35,000,000 and ex- 
ports amounting to $32,000,000, while the 
ports of Rocha, Maldonado, and Colonia, on 
the south coast, and Salto, Paysandu, Fray 
Bentos, Mercedes, and others on the Uruguay, 
handled three millions more of imports and 
exports. Her production in cattle in that 
year amounted to 6,827,428, in sheep 16,- 
608,717, and in pigs, horses, mules, and goats 
700,000. 

At Fray Bentos, on the Uruguay River, 
the Liebig Company has located a great 
plant, slaughters over three hundred thousand 

235 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

head of cattle a year, and does an enormous 
business in extract of beef, canned meats, 
hides, tallow, hair, horn, and other by- 
products. A day's sojourn in the prosper- 
ous, if soup-laden, atmosphere will give one 
a proper appreciation of the rest of the 
country, for nowhere has Nature been more 
lavish with her favors, nowhere has she dis- 
tributed more favorable conditions for life and 
national prosperity — everything man needs 
for food or clothing is here capable of being 
raised. Every section is reached by nav- 
igable rivers, which also furnish abundant 
water for irrigation and mechanical purposes. 
The country being on a gold basis, its credit 
in the European money markets is excellent. 
Uruguay, as one historian expresses it, has 
always been the cockpit of the southern half 
of the continent. From the time of the ap- 
pearance of the first whites in the Plata 
region — Diaz de Solis in 1515, and ten years 
later Sebastien Cabot — down to the period 
of Hernando Arias and Garay, who, in about 
1580, permanently established the power of 
Spain on the river Plata, the Spanish and 
Portuguese settlements on the Plata and 
Uruguay had to contend with the incessant 

236 



URUGUAY 

hostilities of a race of Indians — the Charriias, 
who, next to the Araucanians of Chile, had 
the distinction of offering the most vigorous 
and successful opposition to the dominion of 
the Europeans in South America. 

Throughout the colonial regime, Uruguay 
constituted the eastern border province (Ban- 
da Oriental) of Spain's La Plata colony, 
and was the storm center of the Spanish 
and Portuguese strife for territorial control. 
Following this period came the abortive in- 
vasion of the English in 1806, and, a few 
years later, the wars of independence. When 
Spanish rule came to an end in the Plata 
country, the Banda Oriental became the bone 
of contention between Brazil and the newly 
born state that is now Argentina — a veritable 
new-world Flanders and the theater of many 
fierce battles. Brazil held the province from 
1817 to 1829, and called it her Cis-platine 
Province. Finally, on May 1, 1829, Uru- 
guay achieved her independence and set up 
a government of her own under the style of 
the Oriental Republic of Uruguay. 

There is good reason, then, why the Uru- 
guayans should have emerged from these 
three hundred years of turbulent character 

237 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

building into independence with a bellicose 
personality exactly suited to the Montague- 
and-Capulet existence that prevails in her 
politics between the Blancos, or reactionists, 
and the Colorados, who now hold the political 
power and stand for progress. The force- 
fulness of the nation is now finding its ex- 
pression in industrial and commercial enter- 
prises and has made of her chief port a pow- 
erful commercial rival of the busy mart across 
the Plata. 



238 



PARAGUAY 

PARAGUAY is in the longitudinal cen- 
ter of South America, and, with the 
exception of Bolivia, is the only coun- 
try on the continent that does not border on 
the sea. Next to Uruguay it is the smallest 
of the South American republics, possessing 
a territory of 196,000 square miles. Until 
the break with Spain, in 1813, it was, like 
Uruguay, part and parcel of La Plata col- 
ony, under the jurisdiction of the Viceroy 
of Buenos Aires, and was known as the 
Province of Paraguay. As will be observed 
from a glance at the map, it is hedged in by 
Bolivia, Brazil, and Argentina, and is sepa- 
rated from its twin sister, Uruguay, by an 
arm of the mother country (Misiones Ter- 
ritory) that reaches up into Brazil between 
the Parana and Uruguay rivers. 

For a proper acquaintance with the coun- 
try it must be conceived as a dual personality, 

239 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

for it is divided longitudinally by the river 
Paraguay into western Paraguay, or the 
Chaco, and eastern Paraguay, or Paraguay 
proper. It is in the latter region that the 
republic has its being and in which the vis- 
itor's interest is naturally centered. El 
Chaco is a vast, thickly wooded, and, for the 
most part, savage and unexplored section 
that was awarded to Paraguay by our Presi- 
dent Hayes as arbitrator of its boundary 
dispute with Argentina; in gratitude the gov- 
ernment named the chief settlement in the 
territory Villa Hayes. The region is now 
given over almost wholly to the immigrant 
Swiss, German, Italian and other communi- 
ties that have been started on the west bank 
of the river, and to nomadic bands of still 
uncivilized Indians. 

With a climate similar to that of southern 
California, Paraguay, throughout its entire 
extent, is blessed with abundant rain the 
year round. It is well watered and quite 
thickly wooded, and thus protected from the 
intense heat usual in low-lying countries. 

Eastern Paraguay resembles Uruguay in 
its rolling, fertile areas, but is more moun- 
tainous. On the northern frontier is the 

240 



PARAGUAY 

range known as the Quinze Puntas. In- 
closing the country on the east are the Cor- 
dilleras of Amambay and Mbaracayu, while 
down the center, from north to south, run 
a broken series of lesser sierras and the range 
called Caaguazii, forming a ridge or backbone 
that subdivides this half of Paraguay into 
the two great basins drained by the Parana 
River on the east and the Paraguay on the 
west. 

Almost the whole of Paraguay proper has 
forests of valuable woods with occasional 
clear places, where settlers have made serv- 
iceable the marvelous fertility and luxuriance 
of the soil. For centuries this region has 
been the barrier between the two distinct 
phases of Spanish civilization in South Amer- 
ica — the golden empire of Peru and the 
agricultural colonies on the Plata and its 
tributaries — just as Uruguay has been the 
buffer state between the Portuguese and 
Spanish peoples. These phases have merged 
but little and to-day present a most interest- 
ing contrast. 

From the time of Cabot's fortified settle- 
ment of Asuncion (now the capital of Para- 
guay) at the junction of the Paraguay and 

241 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

Pilcomayo rivers, in 1536, whence his lieu- 
tenant, Domingo Irala, made his vain attempt 
to penetrate into Peru, down to the present, 
Paraguay has been isolated to a considerable 
degree from the march of progress. The six 
hundred adventurers who followed the for- 
tunes of Irala stayed on the land, inter- 
married with the Guarany Indians and bred 
the mixed race that was the foundation of the 
nation of to-day; and the Indians developed, 
along with the mestizos, to a status unique in 
South America. Evading the abject slavery 
that decimated the aboriginal races through- 
out the Andean region, the Guaranies were 
taught the arts of the soil and war by the 
Jesuits, and, during the hundred and fifty 
years of the latter's sway, achieved a stage of 
development corresponding to that of the 
peasantry of France. 

The story of the Jesuit missions which oc- 
cupied the Parana basin, is an important and 
thrilling chapter in Latin- American history. 
Early in its life, the Society turned its at- 
tention to the evangelization of South 
America; it was the genius of its founder, 
Ignatius Loyola, that perfected the organi- 
zation to accomplish this. In 1550 the Jesuit 

242 




GOVERNMENT PALACE, ASUNCION. 




VIEW OF ASUNCION AND RIVER PARAGUAY FROM ROOF OF THE CENTRAL 
RAILROAD STATION. 



PARAGUAY 

Fathers began their work on the Brazilian 
coast settlements, but were driven farther 
and farther inland by the Portuguese as it 
became apparent that their policy of educa- 
tion and uplift would put an end to the 
enslavement of the natives which was the 
basis of the economic scheme of the colonists. 
Eventually, some time about 1586, the Jesuits 
entered the Paraguay region, won the con- 
fidence of the Guaranies and purposed to 
"reduce" the tribes of the whole Plata coun- 
try. They met with the same opposition 
from the Spanish colonists and their strong- 
hold became restricted to the secluded and 
isolated region mentioned — the Parana basin 
and Misiones territory of Argentina. 

Here, for over a hundred years, under the 
protection of the official sanction won from 
the Spanish King, Philip III, they worked 
among their proselytes. They learned and 
perfected the native dialects; taught the men 
to cultivate the soil, and the women to spin 
and weave cotton; induced them to clear 
the forests and to build and live in towns, 
and even organized them into an effective 
militia, which more than once enabled them 
to preserve the integrity of the remarkable 

243 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

state — a state unique in a way, since it was 
virtually under the direct control of the Gen- 
eral of the Order, although within the terri- 
torial sovereignty of Spain. This "republic" 
lasted until 1769, when the famous decree of 
the King of Spain banished the Jesuits from 
all his dominions; but the effects of their 
presence are still noticeable throughout Para- 
guay and Misiones. 

It is a matter of wonder to this day how the 
Jesuit Fathers, even taking into consideration 
their unquenchable zeal and marvelous energy 
and determination, ever succeeded in reach- 
ing so isolated a territory and in traversing 
it in every direction, as they did, in pursuit 
of their campaign. Even to-day it is well- 
nigh impossible to reach the heart of the 
region — the great cataract of Guayra, which, 
hundreds of miles from the habitations of 
man, isolated by jagged mountains, fiercely 
swirling waters and the wild tangle of under- 
brush that make headway through the awe- 
some tropical forest very difficult, constitutes 
one of the most majestic of nature's wonder- 
works in South America. Situated about a 
hundred miles up the Parana River from the 
better known Iguazu Falls, the Guayra cata- 

844 



PARAGUAY 

ract lies on the frontier with Brazil. A vol- 
ume of water twice as large as that which 
thunders over Niagara is forced through a 
gorge two hundred feet wide from a stream 
two and a half miles in width. The roar of 
its plunge of fifty-six feet to the lower levels, 
adds the essential note to this tremendous 
symphony of primeval nature. Outside the 
Arctic regions, one explorer declares, no part 
of the world is less accessible than the Parana 
above the Great Cataract. 

After the expulsion of the Jesuits the 
Parana basin reverted to forest and the 
nation pursued its checkered career in the 
section drained by the Paraguay. This river 
intersects the republic from north to south 
and is navigable through its entire course by 
ocean steamers, which pass up from Buenos 
Aires through the Parana, and past Corri- 
entes, where the two great streams join 
forces. 

On the left bank of the Paraguay, at the 
point of its confluence with the equally great 
Pilcomayo, the traveler comes to the ancient 
city of Asuncion, the capital of the country. 
Here was the seat of the colonial authority 
over Plata settlements until Buenos Aires 

245 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

grew into importance. It has a population 
of 52,000, and is now thriving and prosperous, 
rapidly taking on the cosmopolitanism that 
characterizes the other ports of South 
America. The capital, and indeed the whole 
country has but recently entered into a new 
life, a life as sharply contrasted with its period 
of political storm and stress as the transition 
was sudden. 

For, during the first sixty years after the 
country had attained its freedom from Spain, 
Paraguay's progress was stifled by a succes- 
sion of tyrants — remarkable men, all three of 
them, but men who, as a result of their rule, 
well-nigh cost her her national existence. The 
first of these, Dr. Jose Rodriguez Gaspar 
Francia, had been the dominating figure in 
the revolutionary junta, and afterward, with 
his confrere, General Yegros, had been ap- 
pointed Consul and invested with the supreme 
power. "He was a lawyer," Dawson tells 
us, "who had become a sort of demigod to 
the lower classes by his fearless advocacy of 
their rights, and inspired almost superstitious 
reverence by his reputation for learning and 
disinterestedness." A year later, the historian 
continues — 

246 



PARAGUAY 

"He forced Yegros out, and, with general consent, 
assumed the position of sole executive, and, in 1816, 
was formally declared supreme and perpetual dicta- 
tor. For the next twenty-five years he was the gov- 
ernment of Paraguay. History does not record 
another instance in which a single man so dominated 
and controlled a people. A solitary, mysterious fig- 
ure, of whose thoughts, purposes, and real character 
little is known, the worst acts of his life were the most 
picturesque and alone have been recorded. Although 
the great Carlyle includes him among the heroes 
whose memory mankind should worship, the opinion 
of his detractors is likely to triumph. Francia will 
go down to history as a bloody-minded, implacable 
despot, whose influences and purposes were wholly 
evil. After reading all that has been written about 
this singular character, my mind inclines more to 
the judgment of Carlyle. I feel that the vivid imagi- 
nation of the great Scotchman has pierced the clouds 
which enshrouded the spirit of a great and lonely 
man, and has seen the soul of Francia as he was. 
Cruel, suspicious, ruthless, heartless as he undeniably 
became, his acts will not bear the interpretation that 
his purposes were selfish or that he was animated by 
mere vulgar ambition. . . . 

"He absorbed in his own person all the functions of 
government; he had no confidants and no assistants; 
he allowed no Paraguayan to approach him on terms 
of equality. When he died, a careful search failed 
to reveal any records of the immense amount of 
governmental business he had transacted during 
thirty years. The orders for executions were simply 
messages signed by him and returned to be destroyed 
as soon as they had been carried out. The longer 

247 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

he lived, the more completely did he apply his system 
of absolutism, the more confident he became that he 
alone could govern the people for their good. He 
adopted a policy of commercial isolation, and inter- 
course with the outside world was absolutely for- 
bidden. He neither sent nor received consuls nor 
ministers to foreign nations. Foreign vessels were 
excluded from the Paraguay River and allowed to 
visit only one port in the southeastern corner of the 
country. He was the sole foreign merchant. The 
communistic system inherited from the Jesuits was 
developed and extended to the secular parts of the 
country. . . . Dreading interference by Spain, 
Brazil, or Buenos Aires, he improved the military 
forces and began the organization of the whole popu- 
lation into a militia. His policy, however, was peace- 
ful. ... 

"As he grew older he became more solitary and 
ferocious. Always a gloomy and peculiar man, ab- 
sorbed in his studies and making no account of the 
ordinary pleasures and interests of mankind, he had 
reached the age of fifty-five and assumed supreme 
power without marrying. . . . His severities against 
the educated classes increased ; he ordered wholesale 
executions and seven hundred political prisoners filled 
the jails when he died. He feared assassination and 
occupied several houses, letting no one know where 
he was going to sleep from one night to another, and, 
when walking the streets, kept his guards at a dis- 
tance before and behind him. Woe to the enemy or 
suspect who attracted his attention ! Such was the 
terror inspired by this dreadful old man that the news 
that he was out would clear the streets. A white 
Paraguayan literally dared not utter his name. Dur- 

248 



PARAGUAY 

ing his lifetime he was 'El Supremo,' and, after he 
was dead, for generations he was referred to simply 
as 'El Defunto.' . . . He did not rise by any 
sycophantic arts. Indeed, he never veiled the con- 
tempt he felt for the party schemers and officials 
around him. When he had supreme power in his 
hands, he used it for no selfish indulgences. His life 
was austere and abstemious ; but, though parsimo- 
nious for himself, he was lavish for the public. . . . 
In his manners'and life, he was absolutely modest; he 
received any one who chose to see him. If he was 
terrible, it was to the wealthy and powerful; the 
humblest Indian received a hearing and justice. Dur- 
ing his reign Paraguay remained undisturbed, 
wrapped in a profound peace ; the population rapidly 
increased, and, though commerce and manufactures 
did not flourish, nor the new ideas that were trans- 
forming the face of the civilized world penetrate, 
food and clothing were plentiful and cheap and the 
Paraguayans prospered in their own humble fashion." 

Following the reign of Francia came a long 
period of open intercourse with the neighbor- 
ing states and foreign countries under the 
dictatorship of Carlos Antonio Lopez, and 
some measure of progress was made, but still 
there was no development of republican insti- 
tutions. His death made room for his son 
Francisco, who was a man of thirty-five at the 
time of his accession, and, having spent some 
time in Europe, had returned permeated with 

249 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

the vices of the great capitals and a consum- 
ing ambition for military renown. A very 
different character of man morally, he is said 
to have been, from the first of his line. He 
is described as vain, licentious, gluttonous, and 
unscrupulous to the last degree, though good- 
looking and an eloquent speaker. "He began 
his reign like a Mohammedan sultan," says 
Dawson, "ridding himself of his father's most 
trusted counselors, imprisoning and execu- 
ting the most intelligent and powerful citizens. 
. . . He ordered his best friends to execution ; 
he tortured his mother and sisters and mur- 
dered his brothers. The only natural affec- 
tion he ever evinced was a fondness for a 
woman he had picked up in Paris, and for her 
children. He seems to have treated her well 
to the last, but his numerous other mistresses 
and their children he heartlessly abandoned." 
He soon raised an army of more than 
eighty thousand, the largest that had ever 
been assembled since the conquest, and, by 
assuming the aggressive in certain boundary 
disputes with Brazil and Argentina and inter- 
fering in civil disturbances that were going 
on in Uruguay, involved the country in war 
with these three powers, which, alarmed at 

250 



PARAGUAY 

his Napoleonic aspirations, promptly formed 
an alliance for the purpose of resisting him. 
This war lasted five years and for Paraguay 
was one long succession of appalling disasters. 
Before the first battle was fought her popu- 
lation numbered more than 1,300,000; when 
Lopez was finally defeated and killed in 1870, 
but 221,079 remained, of whom only 28,746 
were men. "No modern nation has ever come 
so near to complete annihilation," says Daw- 
son. "Not less than 225,000 Paraguayan men 
— the fathers and bread-winners, the farmers 
and laborers — had perished in battle, by dis- 
ease or exposure or starvation. One hundred 
thousand adult women had died of hardship 
and hunger, and there were less than 90,000 
children under fifteen in the country. The 
surviving women outnumbered the men five 
to one; . . . but the integrity of Paraguay 
and her continuance as an independent power 
had been mutually guaranteed by Brazil and 
Argentina when they began the war against 
Lopez, and neither of them could afford to 
let the other take possession of her territory, 
so the country was left substantially intact." 
Asuncion shows on its face the two phases — 
the modern business houses, residences and 

251 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

public service improvements of the new era, 
and the ruined districts and wrecks such as 
those of cathedral, presidential palace and old 
public buildings that emphasize the lessons 
of the old. To-day the visitor looks with a 
shudder at the ruins of the uncompleted 
mausoleum in which the last tyrant expected 
his remains to rest and at the two-million- 
dollar palace where, in rooms hung with rare 
laces and crimson satin, his unspeakable orgies 
were held; he turns with relief toward the 
modernism now beginning to be apparent 
which proves the substantial worth of a 
people which can arise from such a past and 
prosper. The survivors of the old regime 
have been severely tested for fitness to enjoy 
the fruits of their well-favored country. 

The republic — no longer such in name 
only — is governed under an enlightened con- 
stitution modeled after our own. The present 
administration has opened wide the doors to 
immigration and foreign capital, and the arti- 
ficial barrier erected by her political system of 
the nineteenth century no longer exists as the 
complement to the natural barriers that have 
stood for four centuries between the northern 
and southern countries of South America. 

252 



PARAGUAY 

Those who may be so fortunate as to obtain 
control of Paraguay's highways, the Para- 
guay and Pilcomayo, and supplement them 
by extending its 155 miles of railway into a 
system that will develop the vast agricultural 
and mineral empire of central and southern 
Brazil and Bolivia, and carry the produce to 
the Argentine seaboard, will gain a prize 
unequaled in the railroad world, and make 
of Paraguay a country of first importance on 
the continent. 

Throughout the country the forests are 
being cleared to make room for potreros 
(cattle ranches) and the growing agricultural 
industries. Yerbales are coming more and 
more under the scientific culture which 
greatly enhances the value of the country's 
leading product, yerba mate, or Paraguay 
tea. - 

Paraguay is the namesake and chief pro- 
ducer of the famous yerba mate or Paraguay 
tea, which is the national drink — the cup of 
ceremony and popular tipple throughout 
the central part of South America below the 
coffee belt; that is, on the Argentine Campo, 
in Uruguay, Paraguay, the lower part of 
Brazil, Bolivia and Chile. So well adapted 

253 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

is the beverage to the climate that the German 
colonists forsake their beer and the Euro- 
pean-Latins their sweet cordials for the stim- 
ulating and non-alcoholic native product. 

The yerba leaf is prepared by steeping in 
boiling water, as in the case of the tea with 
which the rest of the world is familiar. The 
mate is the dried gourd in which the tea is 
brewed. Into the aperture left by removing 
the stem, a tube (the bombilla), made of reed 
or bone, is inserted and through this the 
drinker sucks the refreshing brew. When- 
ever the occasion offers "Toma usted mate? " 
is almost a form of greeting in the yerba 
mate countries, so universal is its popularity. 
Among the rich the mate and bombilla are 
fashioned in costly metals, but elsewhere the 
gourd and reed serve their purpose with 
equal, if not greater, satisfaction. 

The ilex yaraguayensis, to give the herb 
its botanical name, is an evergreen tree or 
shrub from twelve to twenty-five feet high, 
with bright green leaves clustered in a bushy 
mass that cause it from a distance to re- 
semble the orange tree. Although much of 
the yerba mate is still obtained from the 
immense natural forests, the ever-increasing 

254 



PARAGUAY 

demand has made cultivation a necessity. 
Many plantations have been successfully laid 
out, and crops of leaves have recently been 
gathered with commercially profitable results. 
The scientific methods now being adopted in 
the yerbales (yerba plantations) of Para- 
guay to supplant the destructive system of 
the past will insure for this growing industry 
a rich return to the owners. 

The drink is taken without the addition of 
condiment and for the most part hot, like the 
Japanese sake. It is stimulating and sus- 
taining, and soothes instead of irritating the 
nervous system. Unlike the concoctions made 
from the coca leaf (cocaine), sugar cane 
(rum), pulque, sake, vodka and other stim- 
ulants stumbled upon by native peoples and 
become destructive habits, yerba mate has no 
deleterious effects either immediate or after 
prolonged use. 

Dr. Lenglet, President of the Interna- 
tional League of Pure Food, says of it: 

"The noteworthy point of the effect of mate on 
the system is its stimulating action on the cerebro- 
spinal organs. Taken with sugar the first thing in 
the morning it is very wholesome. It gives great 
capacity to undergo fatigue and invigorates the 

255 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

brain, and although it prevents feeling hungry, one 
does not enjoy one's meals any the less. It does not 
appear to affect the intestinal organs; the nervous 
system is, nevertheless, insensible to the organic losses 
caused by the want of nourishment which are made 
known by hunger. 

"In mate is found one of the most important means 
to obtain a maximum of strength and energy. It can 
be compared to a reservoir of vitality." 



256 



VI 



BOLIVIA 

IN the heart of the continent a vast table 
of land as large as all our Middle States 
has been crowded up into the air by some 
titanic convulsion to a height of more than 
two miles, or fourteen thousand feet. The 
surface in many places is deeply encrusted 
with salt, suggesting the upheaval of a great 
mediterranean sea and a spilling of its waters 
over the succession of terraced slopes that 
finally break off abruptly and merge in the 
summer valleys of Brazil and Paraguay; for 
from these heights innumerable streams shim- 
mer off toward the distant Amazon. 

The plateau is hemmed in by the Cordillera 
de la Costa (the coast range) and the Cor- 
dillera Real, the main range, on the east, and 
is intersected in various directions by cross- 
sections, the whole producing a topography 
of a grandeur that makes all attempts at 
description pitifully inadequate. The majes- 
tic snow-clad peaks of Guallatiri and Miniquis 

257 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

in the coast range, and Illampu (Sorata), 
Illimani, Chachacomani, and Karkaake in the 
Cordillera Real rise to a height of over 22,000 
feet. A dozen more in both ranges exceed 
20,000. On the northwestern border along 
the Peruvian frontier, lies Lake Titicaca, 
unique also in that it is the highest navigated 
body of water on the globe. It is 160 miles 
long by thirty wide and is fed by the melting 
Andean snows. 

This plateau is the center of Bolivia's life 
to-day, as it was the cradle of successive ab- 
original civilizations that finally culminated 
many centuries ago in the Inca empire. It is 
the highest inhabited land on the face of the 
earth, with the possible exception of Tibet. 
The evidence at every hand of nature's tre- 
mendous activities must have left its impress 
on the races that formerly had their being 
here. The gigantic relics which are now the 
enduring monuments of these peoples are 
proof of the bigness of their point of view. 
They saw largely and the range of their 
vision embraced great distances, great alti- 
tudes, and great depths. There is evidence 
also that the newly awakened present race will 
prove worthy of its surroundings. 

258 



BOLIVIA 

The people now inhabiting this great An- 
dean Massif have in their veins the blood of 
both the intrepid Conquistadores and the 
hardy Aymara and Inca stock, and it is in the 
nature of things that the present-day Bolivian, 
now that his republicanism is established after 
a century of turbulent assimilation, will make 
great strides in industrial progress in jus- 
tification of the spirit that is his birthright. 
In this altitude, so high that at first most 
foreigners suffer from its effects, the Bo- 
livians have built their capital and chief cities. 
Here the first blow was struck against the 
oppression of Spain, and in the mountain de- 
files of the Peruvian Andes leading down to 
the Pacific coast the last shot was fired that 
drove the viceregal army to its transports. 
With the departure of the Spanish came the 
establishment, in 1825, of the Republic of 
Bolivia, the name given to the old Buenos 
Airean province of Alto-Peru by its first 
president, Bolivar's famous lieutenant, Gen- 
eral Sucre, in honor of his chief. 

Bolivia is fourth in size among the South 
American republics. It covers 708,195 
square miles, and could include within its 
limits the combined areas of California, 

259 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

Nevada, Utah, Idaho, Arizona, Oregon, and 
Washington. The republic lies wholly within 
the torrid zone, but the gradation of its 
topography extends from the yungas ("hot 
valleys") at the border of the Amazon basin 
to the punas, or high table-lands, ranging 
from four to fourteen thousand feet, so that 
animal and vegetable life of every clime is 
represented — from the brilliantly colored fla- 
mingo and butterfly of the Amazon plains to 
the dread condor of the Andes; from the 
rubber tree, through all stages of arborial 
and plant life, to the little yellow bitter po- 
tato, grown near the point at which vegeta- 
tion vanishes in the Arctic cold of the higher 
peaks. 

Of course, the shortest and most direct 
route to Bolivia's capital and chief cities is 
by rail from either of the Pacific ports of 
Mollendo, in Peru, or Arica or Antofagasta, 
in Chile. The quick change of view from 
the arid coast to the grandeur of Andean 
mountain scenery, and the familiar comforts 
of railway travel incline most visitors to the 
approach from one of those points. But, as 
the greater part of Bolivia's territory is that 
which falls away from the plateau, like a 

260 



BOLIVIA 

lady's train, northward and eastward to the 
frontiers of Brazil and Paraguay, a more 
comprehensive and impressive acquaintance 
with the country can be had by entering 
either from the north, via the Amazon and 
Maderia rivers to Villa Bella on the Bra- 
zilian frontier, and thence over a thousand 
miles on horseback to La Paz, or from the 
east, starting from our last resting place at 
Asuncion in Paraguay. From Asuncion one 
travels up the Paraguay River to Corumba in 
Brazil, thence, by a small affluent to Puerto 
Suarez, eighty-one miles distant on the fron- 
tier, thence by a zigzag course of eight hun- 
dred miles up the rising elevation to Santa 
Cruz, a thriving city of 20,000 population, 
and thence to Cochabamba, still larger and 
8000 feet in altitude. From here there is a 
stage line over one hundred and ten miles of 
mountainous country to Oruro, where con- 
nection is made with the Antofagasta-La Paz 
railway to the capital. 

Or one may go by railroad from Buenos 
Aires via Rosario, Cordoba and Tucuman to 
La Quiaca on the frontier and then north for 
only two hundred miles by stage-coach to 
Uyuni, through which the Antofagasta-La 

261 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

Paz line passes on its way to the capital. 
But, in any event, the approach from the east 
or north richly repays the visitor for the time 
consumed and discomfort he may have to 
undergo on the way. The noted naturalist, 
D'Aubigny, says of the yungas region, 
through which one must first make his way 
on leaving the Paraguay: "If tradition has 
lost the records of the place where Paradise 
is situated, the traveler who visits these re- 
gions of Bolivia feels at once the impulse to 
exclaim, 'Here is the lost Eden.' ' 

Leaving the dense and weirdly impressive 
tropical forests of the hinterland, the rolling 
areas of the yungas ascend toward the 
plateau — a succession of vast gardens deli- 
cately scented and brilliant with color. As 
the country is coming more under cultivation 
each year the traveler's eye rests frequently 
upon plantations of coffee, cacao, and coca, 
the plant from which we get cocaine. The 
coca leaf is highly prized by the native as a 
stimulant; he chews it as a Northerner would 
chew tobacco but with a better excuse, since 
by its use he can perform great feats of en- 
durance and go many hours without food. 
With his pouch filled with coca leaves and a 

262 



BOLIVIA 

small supply 01 parched Indian corn, he can 
run fifty miles a day, for these fleet-footed 
Indians constitute the telegraph system of 
this region. The output of the cocales, or 
coca plantations, was nearly nine million 
pounds last year. 

This is also the home of the highly nu- 
tritious if impossibly named jamacch'ppeke 
plant, which, when dried and powdered and 
mixed with water, produces a delicately fla- 
vored milk much used in hospitals and even 
for babies. Higher up in the valle zone wheat 
and corn fields may be seen as well as the fa- 
mous chincona tree, so named because, in 
1638, the Condesa de Chinchon (wife of the 
Peruvian Viceroy) wrote of her wonderful 
cure from malaria by an Indian draught pre- 
pared from the bark of this tree. It has been 
known since as chincona or Peruvian bark, 
but it was not until 1820 that the French 
chemist, Pelletier, extracted from the tree 
the calisaya or quinine with which we are 
now familiar, and which, by the way, is said 
to be one of the two or three natural specifics 
ever yet discovered for disease. 

On these slopes also grows the new sub- 
stitute for wheat, quinua, a grain more nu- 

263 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

tritious and more cheaply produced than its 
northern prototype, also the delicious camote, 
a delicately flavored type of sweet potato, 
the palta, known in Cuba and Mexico as the 
aguacate and in Florida as the alligator pear, 
which makes the rich salad, and all vari- 
ations of the sweet, pulpy fruits like the 
pomegranate, granadilla, capote, etc. This 
is also one of the homes of the nutmeg, olive, 
and castor bean, and of sugar, cotton, oranges, 
cinnamon, vanilla, saffron, indigo, and ginger ; 
also of a remarkable variety of medicinal 
plants: for instance, those from which are 
derived aconite, arnica, absinthe, belladonna, 
camphor, quassia, cocaine, digitalis, gentian, 
ginger, ipecaque, jalap, opium, sarsaparilla, 
tamarind, tolu and valerian. The Indians of 
this belt are the most artistic leather workers 
in the world, and their beautiful ponchos (a 
sort of circular cape the mountaineers wear, 
with a hole in the center for the head to go 
through), woven from native silk, are eagerly 
sought by all visitors. 

Leaving this richly endowed agricultural 
region for the still richer location of Bo- 
livia's mineral wealth, the traveler ascends to 
the great plateau on which the capital and 

264 



BOLIVIA 

important cities are built. At Potosi one is 
in the heart of the great silver country. From 
one mountain here, the Cerro de Potosi itself, 
over three billion dollars' worth of silver 
has been taken since its discovery in 
1545. The luxury and almost unbeliev- 
able extravagance told of in the annals 
of this city have given it a world-wide fame. 
Its principal building, the mint, cost the then 
unprecedented sum of two million dollars, an 
expenditure that brought many qualms to 
the miserly ascetic, Philip II, who would 
have preferred to pour the flood of wealth 
into the coffers of the church. The author 
of "Don Quixote" refers to Potosi as the 
synonym for fabulous wealth, and there is 
hardly a writer of the early days of the col- 
ony who did not mention the silver mountain 
to illustrate the idea of lavish abundance. In 
those days silver was regarded as equally 
valuable with gold. 

Bolivia's marvelous wealth in tin is un- 
excelled even in the Malay Peninsula. Al- 
ready one of the chief centers of the tin indus- 
try, this metal promises to bring to the 
twentieth-century Bolivia as much commercial 
fame as the gold mines brought Alto-Peru 

265 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

in the sixteenth century. Copper, iron, lead 
and bismuth, as well as topazes, emeralds, 
opals, jasper, and marble, are also present in 
large quantities throughout the plateau. 

After descending from Potosi, which is at 
an altitude of 15,380 feet, one should visit 
the white city of Sucre before proceeding to 
the present seat of government, La Paz. In 
Bolivia the name of Sucre is as omnipresent 
as Bolivar's in Venezuela and Colombia, and 
most naturally when the new republic was 
formed the name of its chief city, Charcas, 
was changed to Sucre to honor the hero of 
Ayacucho — Antonio Jose de Sucre — when 
this "right hand" of Bolivar became its first 
president. The city is ancient, kindly, and 
romantically beautiful in its setting on the 
eastern slope of the royal range, and once, 
under a law enacted some eighty years ago, 
it was the capital. 

Its extreme altitude, however, made im- 
possible the cosmopolitanism that must per- 
tain to a capital city — the foreign diplomats 
in most cases refused to reside there be- 
cause of the severity of the siroche, or 
mountain sickness, that nearly always as- 
sails the newcomer to these altitudes. So 

266 




SHRINE OF OUR LADY OF CAPACABANA, ON BOLIVIAN SHORE OF 
LAKE TITICACA. 




TOWN AND MOUNTAIN OF POTOSI, BOLIVIA. 



BOLIVIA 

the seat of government was removed to 
La Paz, and now it is the tribunal of the 
Supreme Court and Archiepiscopal see only. 
Here also are located the University of San 
Francisco Xavier and the homes of many of 
Bolivia's most aristocratic families. Thus 
far, modernism has had a beneficial influence 
on the city in many respects, but has not 
changed its appearance. Its public works 
have made it healthful and comfortable, but 
its stately old dwellings and public buildings 
preserve their peculiar charm unaltered to 
suit the modern architectural taste. 

Farther north, and not yet connected by 
rail with Sucre, lies the present capital, La 
Paz, the actual seat of government. There 
for many years have resided the president, 
the congress, and the representatives of the 
foreign governments, so that the Paceno is 
justified in looking upon his city as the 
metropolis. Like its predecessor in this 
distinction, it was rechristened when the 
Spanish regime came to an end. When the 
Conquistadores exterminated the Indians res- 
ident on its site and built the present city, 
for some occult reason they named it La 
Ciudad de Nuestra Seiiora de la Paz! Our 

267 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

Lady of Peace clung to the name, no doubt, 
with grim humor during the turbulent times 
that followed, until the decisive battle of 
Ayacucho brought to the nation a more 
effective peace from Spanish oppression, and 
to-day La Paz de Ayacucho is the official 
name of the seat of government. 

La Paz, Quito, Bogota, Caracas, and Mex- 
ico are the five highest capitals in the world, 
but the first-named is loftier by half a mile 
than any of its rivals. The visitor is always 
surprised at the location of La Paz. Hav- 
ing been told of its great elevation — 12,300 
feet above the sea level, he naturally ex- 
pects to see a city perched on a high moun- 
tain; in fact, it is at the bottom of a deep 
canyon, backed, however, by the giant peak 
Illimani, which towers above, to a height of 
22,500 feet. Its startling location results in 
daily variations in temperature that greatly 
incommode the stranger; frequently the ther- 
mometer drops from 80° F. at noon to below 
zero at night, although generally these ex- 
tremes vary but little during the year. 

Winding cautiously down the canyon to a 
depth of some 1500 feet, the train comes to 
a terrace overlooking the city and then un- 

268 



BOLIVIA 

folds before the traveler one of the most re- 
markable and picturesque scenes in South 
America. The reds of the roofs of the flat, 
two-story houses and the softer tints of the 
walls that make Caracas so alluring are here 
given a more brilliant and positive tone. The 
Oriental atmosphere is tempered by the 
rugged surroundings and the crisper, clearer 
air of the higher altitude. Everywhere the 
bright, elemental colors — red, green, and 
yellow — worn by the Indians, add to the 
brilliant scenes of outdoor life. The streets of 
the city are a series of steep ascents, admirable 
for drainage, no doubt, but affording little 
pleasure to the visitor who is fond of walk- 
ing, for to the newcomer the rarified at- 
mosphere makes exercise a trial. Surpassing 
Rome in one respect, La Paz seems to be 
built upon at least fifty hills, but many level 
areas are laid off in beautiful parks, a dozen 
or more in number, and here the Paceno 
brings his guests for the delightful social 
intercourse — perfected here for long cen- 
turies for want of many of the other amuse- 
ments — that makes his city memorable to the 
visitor. 

One of the most attractive parks, the 
269 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

Plaza Murillo, is named to commemorate the 
inspiring genius of the revolution against 
Spain: Pedro Domingo Murillo. The Ala- 
meda is a broad driveway of five parallel 
avenues that run for over half a mile through 
rows of fine shade trees. At night it is 
lighted with electricity and makes a delightful 
pleasure ground for the people. An exten- 
sion of this boulevard, the Avenida Doce de 
Deciembre, leads to Obrajes, about three 
miles distant. 

The most notable building in the city 
is the great cathedral. For more than sev- 
enty years it has been in course of construc- 
tion and when completed will be the largest 
and most impressive church erected in Latin 
America since the war of independence. In 
style it is Greco-Roman, with a central cupola 
150 feet high and two towers that rise to a 
height of 200 feet. The interior work is of 
exceptional magnificence. Like many of the 
old cathedrals of Spanish origin, its altar is 
of wonderfully carved wood. Besides the 
cathedral, La Paz can boast more than a 
dozen places of worship that compare fa- 
vorably with the churches of other South 
American capitals. 

270 



BOLIVIA 

Only a short distance from La Paz by- 
railroad are the prehistoric ruins of Tia- 
huanaco, which Squier tells us 

"Have been regarded by all students of American 
antiquities as in many respects the most interesting;, 
important and at the same time the most enigmatical, 
of any on the continent. They have excited the won- 
der and admiration alike of the earliest and latest 
travelers, most of whom, vanquished in their attempts 
to penetrate the mystery of their origin, have been 
content to assign them an antiquity beyond that of 
the other monuments of America and to regard them 
as the solitary remains of a civilization that disap- 
peared before that of the Incas began, and contem- 
poraneous with that of Egypt and the East. . . . 
Tradition, which mumbles more or less intelligibly 
of the origin of many other American monuments, is 
dumb concerning these." 

They are on a broad, arid plain, overlook- 
ing Lake Titicaca, about twelve miles from 
the shore, and occupy about a square mile. 
In his description of them Mozans says: "In 
addition to a number of shapeless mounds, of 
earth, there are remarkable traces of five 
different stone structures, which writers, for 
the purpose of classification" (and because 
of their resemblance to plans of such build- 
ings elsewhere), "have agreed to call the 

271 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

fortress, the palace, the temple, the sanctuary, 
and the hall of justice." 

"The materials used in their construction, " 
he goes on, 

"Are trachyte, basalt, and red sandstone. The 
fortress, to judge from its present condition, orig- 
inally resembled a Mexican teocalli, or the pyramid of 
Sakkarah in Egypt, and must, when first erected, 
have presented a very imposing appearance. It is 
a great, terraced mound of earth, supported by stone 
walls, is 50 feet high, 620 feet long, and 450 in 
width. It is, however, in a very dilapidated condi- 
tion, owing to the depredations of treasure-seekers 
and to its having been for centuries used as a quarry 
whence material was obtained for buildings in the 
neighboring towns, for the railroad and for struc- 
tures in La Paz. The temple is in the form of a 
rectangle, 388 by 445 feet. It has been very ap- 
propriately called the American Stonehenge, to which, 
at least in some of its monoliths, it bears a striking 
resemblance. 

"The other three edifices, especially at the hall of 
justice, are likewise remarkable for the area they 
occupy and for the cyclopean masses of stone that still 
remain to attest the extraordinary character of their 
construction. It is these wonderful megaliths, rival- 
ing anything found in Italy, Greece, or Asia Minor, 
that have excited the astonishment of travelers since 
the time of the conquest. The platform, for instance, 
in the hall of justice, is paved with immense slabs, 
some of which are 25 feet long, 14 feet broad, and 
nearly 7 feet thick. But the most remarkable fea- 

272 



BOLIVIA 

ture in these cyclopean structures is the great mono- 
lithic gateway, of very hard trachyte, ornamented 
with numerous well-executed sculptures, apparently 
of a symbolical character. This is more than 13 feet 
long, 7 feet above ground, and 18 inches thick. Some 
of the stones are in a rough, unhewn condition, but 
most of them are cut and fashioned in a most re- 
markable manner. Squier, in referring to this feature 
of these extraordinary ruins, writes: 'Remove the 
superstructures of the best-built edifices of our cities, 
and few, if any, would expose foundations laid with 
equal care and none of them stones cut with such 
accuracy.' " 

In a short time the new home of the 
president and national congress will be fin- 
ished and occupied, and the stately old pal- 
ace where the president now resides will be 
devoted to other uses. The city is well en- 
dowed with public service conveniences, elec- 
tricity, telephones, and handsome public 
buildings, and its hotels are among the best 
to be found anywhere on the continent out- 
side of Buenos Aires, Rio and Valparaiso. 

Of the 80,000 inhabitants, but one thou- 
sand are foreigners. As soon as the rail- 
ways now projected to radiate from this cen- 
ter are completed, the city will be thrown 
open to all the bustle of cosmopolitanism, and 
much of the charm given it by the old 

273 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

Spanish characteristics will be swept away. 
But the nation will profit vastly by the 
change. The development of its agricultural 
and mineral resources should multiply its 
population of 2,500,000 by ten, and make 
of the country a Mecca for the capitalist from 
the North as well as the tourist in search of 
nature's wonders and beauties. 



274 



VII 

CHILE 



"y^HILE," which, by a curious coinci- 
ly dence, had about the same signifi- 
cance in the Inca language that our 
word "chilly" has in English, is the name that 
was originally given by the Incas to that part 
of the Pacific slope of the Andes which lies 
beyond the river Maule, the southern boun- 
dary of their great empire. At the time of 
the Spanish conquest, the first Governor, 
Pedro de Yaldivia, dubbed it "Nueva Es- 
tremadura," after his native province in 
Spain, and so called it in his official commu- 
nications, yet not only did the Inca name 
cling to the country south of the Maule but 
soon it was popularly applied to that in the 
north as well, as far up as Peru. And so 
when, some years afterward (says the his- 
torian Rosales), the Emperor Charles V of 

275 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

Germany, who was also King of Spain, was 
negotiating the marriage of his son Philip 
with Mary, Queen of England, and was told 
that, being a sovereign in her own right, she 
would enter into such an alliance only with 
a reigning monarch, he caused Philip to be 
crowned King of Chile and Naples, and thus 
incidentally, in distinguishing the province 
above his other American possessions, con- 
firmed its original name, and Chile it has 
been called ever since. 

The territory of the present republic con- 
sists of a strip of land of most extraordinary 
conformation lying between the main Cor- 
dillera of the Andes and the sea. It has an 
average width of less than a hundred miles, 
yet stretches for nearly three thousand miles 
from a point in the tropics considerably above 
the center of the continent, clear down to 
Cape Horn, crossing thirty-eight degrees of 
latitude and embracing an area of nearly 
291,500 square miles. A strip of the same 
length in North America would reach from 
Key West to northern Labrador, or, if 
measured along the Rocky Mountains, from 
Mexico to the Yukon in Alaska. Reckoned 
in square miles, it is larger than any country 

276 



CHILE 

in Europe except Russia, though it has a 
population, according to the last census 
(1907), of only 3,254,451— less than that of 
the city and suburbs of Paris or of New 
York. In foreign commerce Chile ranks third 
among the South American republics. In 
1910 it amounted in value to $228,604,198.64. 
The principal exports are silver, copper, ni- 
trates, borax, sulphur, vegetable products, 
wines and liquors. Her exchange of com- 
merce with the United States amounted to 
$38,050,652. 

On ordinary maps this narrow Chilean half 
of the Andean region looks like a mere strip 
of coast traversed by a single range. As a 
consequence, it is not generally understood 
by those who have not visited the country 
that there is really here, as in Bolivia, Peru 
and Ecuador, a double formation, connected 
by transverse ridges in places, but perfectly 
distinct, known as the Andes proper, or main 
Cordillera, and the coast range, or western 
Cordillera. Between the two systems is a vast 
plateau, called the central valley, which be- 
gins in the northern Province of Atacama, 
and, gradually decreasing in height, extends 
south for seven hundred miles, with an aver- 

277 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

age width of from fifty to sixty miles, 
through the Province of Llanquihue, about 
two-thirds of the way down the coast, where 
it disappears, with the coast range itself, in 
the long series of groups of islands into 
which the shore line is broken up. From its 
culminating point back of Santiago, the main 
Cordillera also decreases in height toward 
the south, but, instead of disappearing with 
the coast range, extends throughout the whole 
length of the country, from Peru to the 
southernmost islands of the Fuegian archi- 
pelago, forming the most magnificent back- 
ground imaginable to the view from the sea. 

In the northern section, between the Boliv- 
ian frontier and Coquimbo, there are more 
than thirty extinct or dormant volcanoes of 
great altitude — Toroni (21,340 feet, or about 
four miles, high), Pular (21,325 feet high), 
Iquima (20,275 feet), Aucasquilucha (20,260 
feet), Llulaillaco (20,253 feet), San Jose 
(20,020 feet), Socompa (19,940 feet), and 
many others over 17,000 feet. Imagine these 
in contrast with Etna (10,875 feet) and Ve- 
suvius, which is only 3800 feet, not as high 
as the cones of some of them alone. South 
of the Province of Copaibo, the main range 

278 



CHILE 

itself develops a plateau formation that is 
crossed by several relatively low passes, such 
as the Portezuelo de Come Caballo (14,530 
feet), Los Patos (11,700 feet), and, farther 
south, on a line with Valparaiso, the Uspal- 
lata Cumbre (12,795 feet). Although little 
used even now because of its extremely rug- 
ged character, Los Patos is associated with 
perhaps the most memorable event in the war 
of independence. It was there that, in the 
execution of that strategic movement which 
South American historians say excelled that 
of Hannibal in the Pyrenees and Napoleon's 
crossing of the Alps, the Liberator San 
Martin safely made his way through with 
his whole army in 1817 — artillery, impedi- 
menta, and all — and, within five days, joined 
forces with the Chilean hero, O'Higgins, sur- 
prised the Royalist army awaiting him on 
the plain opposite the Cumbre below, fought 
the great battle of Chacabuco, and entered 
Santiago in triumph. 

But this lower Uspallata Pass, which has 
always been the principal means of land com- 
munication with Argentina, was destined to 
become famous in another way, because (as 
already mentioned in the chapter on Argen- 

279 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

tina), it was the place chosen as the most 
suitable for the route of the Chilean- Argen- 
tine transcontinental railroad, connection be- 
tween the eastern and western sections of 
which was established in April, 1910, by- 
completion of a tunnel through the mountain 
two miles long and half a mile beneath the 
Cumbre — a work of the utmost importance, 
for, aside from the matter of comfort and 
saving of time, it has made it possible to go 
from one country to the other by the land 
route in winter, when the pass above is cov- 
ered with drifts and the deadly winds and 
snowstorms are so likely to whirl down on 
the traveler at any moment that few except 
the hardy mail-carriers ever dared attempt it. 
In this neighborhood the mountains at- 
tain their greatest altitude. A few miles to 
the north and visible a little distance from 
the Cumbre is the "Monarch of the Andes," 
Aconcagua, which, according to the record 
at the Harvard University Observatory in 
Arequipa (Peru), is 24,760 feet (more than 
four miles and a half) high — the highest in 
the world, it is now regarded, next to Mt. 
Everest in the Himalayas. In his interesting 
story of the ascent of Aconcagua, Sir Mar- 

280 



CHILE 

tin Conway, one of the very few who ever suc- 
ceeded in accomplishing it, gives a good idea 
of the region, viewed from a point near the 
lesser of the two summits. "At last I heard 
a shout and looked up and saw Maquignaz a 
yard or two above my head," he says, 

"Standing on the crest of the bed of snow that 
crowned the arete. In a moment I was beside him and 
Argentina lay at our feet. The southern snow face, 
delusively precipitous though actually as steep as 
snow can lie, dropped in a single fall to the glacier 
two miles below. To the right and left for over a 
mile there stretched, like the fine edge of an incurved 
blade, the sharp snow arete that reaches from the 
slightly lower southern summit to the northern. It 
forms the top edge of the great snow slope down 
which we were looking, and is only visible from the 
Horcones valley side as a delicate silver crest, edging 
the rocks. At many points it overhung in big cor- 
nices, like frozen waves about to break. The day 
had thus far been fine, but clouds were now gathering 
in the east. Fearful lest the view might soon be 
blotted out, I took a few photographs before moving 
on. The view abroad from this point differed little 
from that which we finally obtained. To the south 
was Tupungato (22,408 feet), a majestic pile of 
snow, over which even more majestic clouds were pres- 
ently to mount aloft. To the north was the still 
grander Mercedario (22,315 feet), beheld around 
the flank of the final rocks. In the west were the 
hills, dropping lower and lower to the Chilean shore, 
and then the purple ocean. To the northeast, like 

281 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

another ocean, lay the flat surface of the Argentine 
pampas. Elsewhere the Cordillera, in long parallel 
ridges running roughly north and south, stretched 
its great length along, crowding together into an 
inextricable tangle the distant peaks, partly hidden 
by the near summits, which alone interrupted the 
completeness of the panorama." 



All the high peaks are said to be of vol- 
canic origin. Those from Mercedario to 
Tupungato are precipitous and craggy and 
decked with great glaciers. The sky line is 
jagged, like the walls of a ruined castle. Be- 
low the snow, the rocks are richly colored. 
There are vast palisades of dark reds and 
browns, slopes of purple streaked with yel- 
low, and all sorts of other gorgeous combina- 
tions, and, down in the lower valleys, brilliant 
greens. The streams of melting snow pour- 
ing down the sides seem to take on tints that 
correspond. In some places they flow red, as 
with blood from the breast of a giant ; in others, 
with the sun gleaming on them, they look 
like molten gold. The main branch of the 
Rio Mendoza, for instance, above Cuevas on 
the Argentine side, seems pink at first, and, 
lower down, after mixing with the waters of 
its tributaries, changes to a golden brown. It 

282 



CHILE 

is one of those scenes that artists are always 
accused of exaggerating and adding fanciful 
touches to when they attempt the poor repro- 
ductions that the greatest only can give, so 
far are they beyond human skill to portray — 
one of those scenes that few mortals are gifted 
enough to comprehend the unutterable maj- 
esty and magnificence of even when they have 
an opportunity to view the originals. Even 
Burton Holmes, the great globe-trotter and 
lecturer, in relating his impression in a re- 
cent article, confesses that he could not ap- 
preciate it at first. 

"Naturally, we were eager at least to see 
this monarch mountain — Aconcagua, the 
King of the Cordillera," he says. 

"Accordingly, we organized a little expedition, 
and, under the guidance of the capable young Brit- 
isher who is in charge of the livestock of the camp 
at Puente del Inca, and his Chilean 'Capitaz,' or chief 
man, we rode away up a lateral valley toward a well- 
known point of view, whence Aconcagua could be 
clearly seen. A snow-clad mountain looms up at the 
end of that barren valley. 'That's a rather fine peak,' 
I remarked. 'Well, rather,' replied the Englishman. 
'That's the one you have come to see; that's Acon- 
cagua.' We were astounded, for the mountain seemed 
no huger than the Jungfrau, as viewed from Inter- 
laken. In fact, it greatly resembles the Jungfrau in 

283 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

form and outline, and its setting, from this point of 
view, is similar. We had expected to be overwhelmed 
at sight of some sharp, tremendous, towering shape — 
some magnified Matterhorn. What we beheld was 
like a section of a snowy range — a culminating sec- 
tion of that range, perhaps — but not a sharply de- 
fined peak. Yet we were looking at the highest crest 
of the Western Hemisphere. Everything about us 
was on a scale so vast that even Aconcagua was 
dwarfed by the tremendous setting." 

The next great division of the range is 
defined on the north by the Maipo Pass and 
by Las Demas Pass on the south. Its princi- 
pal heights are between 16,000 and 17,000 
feet. From Las Demas on, few are over 
10,000 feet, and, beyond Copahue, near the 
source of the Bio-bio River, the average is 
about 9000. Beyond the volcano Tronador 
(the Thunderer), in the latitude of Lake 
Llanquihue, and as far as Lake Buenos Aires, 
it consists of a series of Swisslike mountains, 
still decreasing in height, but with an oc- 
casional high peak, such as San Valentin 
(12,720 feet), and glaciers growing ever 
larger and more numerous. San Valentin 
towers in the midst of an elevated ice field 
eighty miles long and thirty wide and sends 
down two great glacial streams, one to the 

284 



CHILE 

south and the other into the San Rafael Lake, 
where the ice glides along the bottom until it 
breaks into fragments that drift away in the 
channel of Morelada. All these places can 
now be reached by railroad or steamer. 

No conception of the Chilean country as 
a whole can be formed, however, unless it is 
understood that it is naturally divided into 
zones, as characteristically dissimilar as are the 
various grand divisions of the United States. 
For instance, there is the Magellan and 
Fuegian region, where, to the east of the 
mountain ranges, the great Argentine pampa 
extends clear down through Tierra del Fuego, 
and where, as the climate is too rigorous to 
invite agricultural pursuits, the principal in- 
dustry, and the only important one, aside 
from a small amount of lumbering and gold 
mining, is the raising of herds of sheep and 
cattle. With the exception of the ranchers 
and the ten or twelve thousand people of 
Punta Arenas — which is the only port of call 
in these parts, and is, therefore, the dis- 
tributing and shipping point for all the enor- 
mous expanse of country round about, includ- 
ing the southern section of Argentine Pata- 
gonia — the inhabitants are of the lower order 

285 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

of Indians and live in the forests, supporting 
themselves by hunting and fishing, just as 
they did before they ever saw or heard of a 
white man. 

Then there is the island, lake, and forest 
region between Smyth Channel, say, and 
Valdivia. In the southern part, the princi- 
pal industries are lumbering and fishing, but 
in the north, especially in the Province of 
Chiloe (both the island and mainland) and in 
Llanquihue, there are also wheat and barley 
fields, and the fruit, dairy, and cattle-raising 
industries rank ahead of the timber and fish- 
ing, though in Chiloe this last is among the 
most important. The inhabitants are mostly 
immigrants, mestizos, and Indians, though of 
a better and far more amenable class than the 
races farther south. Most of them are de- 
scendants of those famous Araucanians, whom 
it took nearly four hundred years to subdue. 
Here, throughout nearly the whole of the 
country, in the uplands as well as near the 
coast, is the towering alerce (the Chilean 
pine), often two hundred feet high, sometimes 
two hundred and fifty, which has a superb 
white trunk, varying from ten to fifteen feet 
in diameter, according to height — the rival of 

286 



CHILE 

the California giant redwoods — and here is the 
dingue, that resembles the mighty German 
oak, and supplies wood for railroad cars, 
carriages, casks, and ship-building, of won- 
derful toughness and durability. There are 
cypress, walnut, cedar, ash, beech, and others 
excellent for general building and cabinet 
purposes, too, and other species of value for 
their barks. 

Then, from Valdivia north through the 
Province of Coquimbo, comes the great cen- 
tral valley, which is excelled by few, if any, 
of the temperate agricultural regions of the 
world. It is here, of course, that the princi- 
pal centers of population are located — Val- 
paraiso, the most important seaport south of 
San Francisco, and Santiago, the capital, and 
the ports of Concepcion and La Serena, or Co- 
quimbo. In this region all the cereals, fruits, 
and vegetables are produced in abundance. 
There are immense vineyards and sugar-beet 
and tobacco plantations, stock and dairy farms, 
copper, silver, and coal mines, and factories 
of almost every description. 

North of Coquimbo are the desert provinces 
of Atacama, Antofagasta, Tarapaca, and 
Tacna, where the rain so seldom falls that no 

287 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

useful vegetation can thrive except in a few 
places where irrigation is possible, yet which 
are the chief source of Chile's revenue and 
wealth. These constitute the fourth, or al- 
most exclusively mineral zone, and, aside from 
their gold and silver and copper, contain the 
famous nitrate of soda beds, the only known 
extensive deposit of the kind in the world, 
though here they are found thickly scattered 
over a strip four hundred and sixty miles 
long, averaging about three miles in width. 
Every year more than 2,000,000 tons (in 1910 
it was 2,367,000 tons, worth $86,018,000) are 
exported to fertilize the fields and make the 
gunpowder of Europe and the United States, 
to say nothing of the iodine and other by- 
products extracted in the process of prepara- 
tion. "Plants make use of nitrogen only 
when it is present in the soil in the form of 
nitrates," says the Pan American Bulletin 
(Review Number, August, 1911) — 

"And nitrate of soda is the only fertilizer that con- 
tains this food in a suitable and available form. The 
manner of using it, once it is applied, is the subject 
of technical, agricultural chemistry, but every year 
it is better understood and results are more satisfac- 
tory. On the first discovery of the value of nitrate, 
it was scattered promiscuously in the soil in its crude 

288 



CHILE 

form, just as it was taken from the beds in Chile. 
As the industry advanced, it was found that it was 
more economical to export a purer mineral, and that, 
also, the purer the mineral, the more plant nourish- 
ment it offered, provided that the need of the plant 
was carefully investigated. The results have been a 
more highly developed agriculture and the saving of 
certain by-products, of which iodine is one, the profit 
from which aids the manufacture. Another use for 
nitrate is in the manufacture of nitric acid, and, ulti- 
mately, of many kinds of explosives. . . . 

"Saltpeter, or nitrate of soda, is found mixed with 
other substances. The beds contain four layers of 
material, the next lowest being that of the nitrate 
itself. Above this are the chuca, on the surface, 
which is nothing more than the accumulation of ages ; 
the costra beneath, a harder and older mass, but still 
a somewhat worthless debris ; the caliche, the real 
nitrate of soda, and, finally, the stratum of bed rock 
called gova. To obtain the nitrate, a shaft is sunk 
to the gova, on which powder is placed and exploded ; 
the overlying mass is thrown up and the caliche con- 
taining the nitrate scattered over the ground. This 
is then collected and taken to the refining works for 
preparation into refined or almost pure nitrate of 
soda, ready for export. In the oficinas" (refining 
works) "machinery of the most economical and effec- 
tive pattern is used, and the methods of refining the 
salt are according to the best researches of industrial 
chemistry. The same is true of the facilities for 
transportation to the steamer. Many small but well- 
equipped railways are in operation in the fields, and 
they carry the product to the coast towns, from which 
they are finally shipped abroad. . . . Great Britain 

289 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

takes about forty per cent., Germany and the United 
States each about twenty per cent., France about ten 
per cent., and the remainder goes to such far-away 
places as Egypt, Japan, the Hawaiian Islands, and 
Australia. In fact, without nitrate the great agri- 
cultural producers cannot advance" 

And it is well for Chile that these nitrate 
deposits have proven of such great value — 
they were acquired only at the cost of a long 
and expensive war. Formerly the Province 
of Antofagasta belonged to Bolivia and the 
Provinces of Tarapaca and Tacna to Peru. 
The dividing line between Chile and Bolivia, 
it appears, had always been a bone of conten- 
tion, and, in 1866, while these republics were 
allied in a war with Spain, a treaty had been 
entered into between them, fixing a boundary 
and agreeing that the citizens of either should 
have the right to engage in mining operations 
in the territory of the other, and export the 
products free of all taxation, within a certain 
limited area. It appears also that in 1870 
Bolivia, for a money consideration, granted 
to a company composed of Chileans and Eng- 
lishmen the right to work the nitrate beds 
both in and north of the treaty area, also to 
construct a mole at the port of Antofagasta 

290 



CHILE 

and a road to Caracoles, where rich silver 
mines had been discovered. The mole was 
constructed and not only a road but a rail- 
road, and the company is said to have invested 
heavily in various plants for the preparation 
of the nitrate and the reduction of the silver 
ore. As a result, as it was contended, it was 
Chilean and British capital, and principally 
Chilean energy and labor that developed the 
wealth of the region. 

It further appears that, in 1873, Bolivia and 
Peru had entered into a secret alliance, by the 
terms of which each was to protect the others 
independence and territorial integrity from 
foreign aggression, and that in 1874 another 
treaty between Chile and Bolivia was negoti- 
ated, having in view the settlement of certain 
differences, but which the Bolivian Congress 
had refused to ratify except on condition that 
an export duty on nitrates should thereafter 
be paid. Chile remonstrated, contending that 
such a tax would be in violation of the treaty 
of 1866. Bolivia, it was charged, sought to 
impose it nevertheless and seized the property 
of the Chileno-British company on default in 
payment. The situation having thus become 
acute, Chile sent a fleet to protect the in- 

291 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

terests of her citizens and blockaded the port 
of Antofagasta. At this stage Peru, doubly- 
concerned because of her secret alliance and 
because Chileans had acquired rights in her 
own nitrate fields in Tarapaca, offered her 
services as mediator, but no agreement could 
be reached and she became involved in the 
dispute herself, and, because of her more ac- 
cessible situation, it fell to her lot to bear the 
chief burden of the defence in the war that 
followed. 

In spite of the heroic sacrifices of her offi- 
cers and the desperate courage with which 
her soldiers fought, especially toward the last, 
in nearly every battle, on both land and sea, 
the Chileans were successful, and at last, 
when they had taken Lima itself and made 
their victory complete, the provinces in ques- 
tion were ceded to her provisionally and have 
been developed to their present importance 
under her protection. The half-breed de- 
scendants of the Aymaras and Incas, of which 
the rank and file of the Peruvian and Bo- 
livian armies were composed, were no match 
for the virile roto, in whose veins flowed the 
fiery blood of the Basque and Biscayan 
pioneers, mingled with that of the spirited, 
warlike aborigines of Chile. 

292 



CHILE 

If, in making the grand tour of the conti- 
nent one goes first to Bolivia and visits Chile 
by way of the railroad from La Paz instead 
of going directly from Argentina over the 
transandean road or by steamer through the 
Strait of Magellan, one comes to the end of 
the trip at this very port of Antofagasta, 
which lies basking in the tropical sun on a 
strip of coast at the foot of a low table-land, 
seven hundred miles north of Valparaiso, in 
the heart of the rainless desert. It is very 
different, this region, from the bleak plateau 
up the twelve-thousand-foot slope, with its 
llama trains and poncho-clad natives. Antofa- 
gasta has a population of about 20,000, good 
broad streets, and a very businesslike appear- 
ance. It is a city that looks like one of our 
Western mining towns, and impresses one at 
first glance with its evidences of a more vigor- 
ous and ambitious civilization. There is a 
large oficina for the preparation of nitrate, 
steam tramcar lines, smelters for the treat- 
ment of copper and silver ores, long rows of 
barracks for the housing of the laborers, cor- 
rugated iron warehouses, crowds of ships in 
the offing taking on cargoes of nitrate and 
metals or unloading supplies; yet there are 
a plaza and promenade and hotels, and most 

293 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

of the residences of the officers of the compa- 
nies are decidedly attractive. 

For, in addition to being a nitrate and min- 
ing port, this is one of the principal gateways 
through which Bolivia's commodities still come 
and her own products are sent out, and is the 
distributing center for the Chilean province 
besides, where the land is so barren that the 
inhabitants are dependent on the outside world 
for almost everything. There was a time 
when even water had to be imported into the 
city itself — it used to be said that they drank 
champagne because water was too expensive 
— but not long ago a conduit was constructed 
and now it is piped from the mountains, 250 
miles away; and they have even brought soil 
from the south with which to make gardens to 
adorn their plaza and promenade and the 
grounds near the club where the Britishers 
have their tennis courts and five o'clock teas. 
It is said that of the $127,000,000 invested 
in the hundred or more oficinas generally 
throughout the region, $53,500,000 are Eng- 
lish, $52,500,000 Chilean, and the rest Ger- 
man; so here, of course, as in the greater port 
of Iquique in the Province of Tarapaca, a 
large proportion of the people, other than the 

294 



CHILE 

laboring class, is English, and certain it is 
that the brisk, clean-cut Anglo-Saxon is very- 
much in evidence, both in town and out along 
the plants lining the railroad. 

ii 

As Antofagasta is not connected with 
Valparaiso by railroad, the only practicable 
way of getting there is by steamer. This is 
rather unfortunate for the tourist, because, 
although the accommodations are comfort- 
able enough, the progress is slower and what 
is to be seen along the coast is nowhere near as 
interesting and attractive as in the central val- 
ley. Except at widely separated intervals, 
where the hills part at the mouths of the few 
shallow rivers or about the bays, the shore all 
the way down is dominated by steep, rocky 
cliffs, so high, when the ship's course is near 
the coast, as to conceal the country be- 
hind. The only signs of life are where little 
ports, usually mere clusters of tin-roofed 
huts, are huddled on the beach, sometimes 
with a railroad climbing up the cliffs and 
back into the mining country beyond. Occa- 
sionally there is a city, such as La Serena; 

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THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

but, unless one has plenty of time to spare, 
these do not repay a stopover until the next 
boat. 

Valparaiso (Vale of Paradise) is built at 
the foot of a mountain ridge, divided by deep 
ravines into nineteen separate cerros, or hills, 
that slope down to a wide bay, opening into 
the sea on the north. Encircling the beach is 
an embankment of masonry, called the Male- 
con, which considerably broadens the water 
front and serves as a protection — though 
there have been occasions when it has not 
proven a very effective one — from the heavy 
seas that are driven in by the "northers" dur- 
ing the two stormy winter months. The prin- 
cipal streets run parallel with the embank- 
ment and increase in number in the sections 
where the cerros recede, diminishing again 
where they extend almost to the water's edge. 
In one section, away around near the end, 
there is scarcely room enough for the tracks of 
the railroad that connects the city with its 
beautiful, fashionable suburb, Vina del Mar. 
Many have their homes on the terraced sides 
and tops of the cerros, which are connected 
one with another by handsome bridges and 
made accessible from the streets below by 

296 



CHILE 

inclined railways and elevators, so that, viewed 
from the entrance to the bay, the city has the 
appearance of a huge amphitheater. 

The city has a population of nearly 250,- 
000, but, as some one else has remarked, "As 
the principal port of the west coast, and, in a 
way, the 'downtown' for the capital and the 
rest of Chile, Valparaiso seems more im- 
portant than its mere population would indi- 
cate, and, although the newspapers and street 
signs are in Spanish and Spanish is the lan- 
guage generally spoken, it has little of the 
look of the old Spanish- American town." A 
large element of the population is foreign. 
The Germans are said to have the largest 
colony and the Italians and French to come 
next in order. These are mostly retail mer- 
chants of the better class; but it is here also 
that the men live who design and control the 
vast nitrate and mining enterprises in the 
north and the capitalists who finance the big 
industrial projects and railway development, 
the exporters and importers, bankers, brokers, 
and insurance men, and among these the ten 
or twelve thousand English in the city pre- 
dominate. The better-educated class of Chil- 
eans speak English as well as Spanish and 

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THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

French. The French have almost a monop- 
oly of the retail trade having to do with fash- 
ionable apparel and luxuries, for Paris has 
always been the Mecca of the smart set here 
and in Santiago, just as it has in Rio de 
Janeiro and Buenos Aires. 

Although there are parts of the city that 
still retain something of the old-world aspect, 
the buildings generally are modern — many of 
them new, since it had to be largely rebuilt 
after the great earthquake in 1906, which was 
relatively as disastrous there as the one in San 
Francisco of the same year was to our prin- 
cipal Pacific port. There are few tall build- 
ings and no skyscrapers, yet the main busi- 
ness street, the Calle Victoria, which parallels 
the Malecon almost the entire length, pre- 
sents an array of government buildings, 
banks, hotels, theaters, cafes, retail shops, and 
office buildings larger and more substantial 
and elaborate than can be seen almost any- 
where in cities of that size. The shops are of 
good size, and leave nothing to be desired in 
the way of assortment and quality of their 
stocks. Probably the most attractive of all 
the streets is the Avenida Brazil, which is 
at once a shaded boulevard, business thor- 

298 



CHILE 

oughfare, and fashionable promenade. There 
are trolley cars — with women conductors — 
and arc lights, libraries, first-class educational 
institutions, beautiful parks and plazas where 
they have public band concerts in the even- 
ings, attractive residence districts, and near 
by, at Vina del Mar, there are sea bathing, 
tennis, racing, football, golf, country clubs, 
and a first-class hotel for those who are not 
so fortunate as to have their own houses. 
Only about sixty miles away (though it is 
farther by the railroad, which has to make a 
detour to get through the coast range) is 
the capital, Santiago, the real metropolis of 
the country. 

"Santiago, the Andean city of the snow 
white crown," as Marie Robinson Wright 
was moved to describe it — 



"Is unique in the charm of her unconventional 
beauty and the rugged splendor of her surroundings. 
Like a queen in the giant castle that nature has given 
her, with walls of the imperishable granites of the 
Cordilleras and towers reaching to the skies, she seems 
created for the homage of those who gaze upon her. 
Her face is toward the sunset, as if in expectation 
of the high destiny that awaits this land of promise in 
the golden west of South America; and, from the 
snowy peaks behind her, marked clear against the 

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THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

blue sky, to the farthest limit westward, bordered by 
the boundless Pacific, there is no alien territory to 
limit the prospect of her fair domain. Her jewels, 
rare and resplendent, are the rich emerald of the 
Andean valleys, the matchless sapphire of Andean 
skies, the pure diamonds of Andean streams. Her 
royal robes are woven of the marvelous purple and 
gold of Andean sunsets, unrivaled in brilliancy, and 
imparting to her gracious beauty the glow of infinite 
loveliness, as they envelop her utterly, catching even 
the snowy peaks of her sovereign diadem in their 
magic folds." 



Nor is this in the least overdrawn. No city 
could be more delightfully situated. It lies 
in the great central valley, on a plateau forty 
miles long and about twenty wide, nearly 
two thousand feet above the level of the sea, 
where the climate is as perfect as that in the 
Pyrenees, and is almost completely enclosed 
by a magnificent border of mountains. Lu- 
zerne and other show places in Switzerland 
are mere miniatures compared with it. The 
level portion of the ground is highly culti- 
vated with all sorts of fruits and crops that 
grow in the temperate zone and is divided 
into large haciendas or plantations, nearly 
all with fine cattle and horse-breeding farms 
attached, and princely mansions as of feudal 

300 



CHILE 

lords, and there are splendid avenues of 
giant eucalyptus along the roads and sepa- 
rating the fields. In the heart of the city 
itself is a hill called El Cerro de Santa Lucia, 
that rises to a height of three hundred feet 
and is half as big around as Central Park in 
New York, a spot which such a connoisseur 
as William E. Curtis declared he had 
"long held to be the prettiest place in the 
world." The summit is reached by a num- 
ber of winding driveways and walks, lined 
with trees, flowering shrubs and overhanging 
vines and flanked by battlemented walls and 
towers, picturesque beyond description; there 
are terraces ornamented with flower beds and 
fountains, and grottos, balconies, and rustic 
seats; all along, at intervals, are kiosks for 
music and refreshments; half way up is a 
theater where light opera and vaudeville per- 
formances are given both afternoons and 
evenings; a little farther on is a restaurant 
that is a favorite resort for breakfasting and 
dining out, and, best of all, from the summit 
there is a glorious view of the whole country 
around. 

Across the city from Santa Lucia to the 
Central Railroad depot, an avenue called the 

301 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

Alameda de las Delicias extends for a dis- 
tance of three miles. It is three hundred and 
fifty feet wide and all down the center is a 
beautiful park containing statues and monu- 
ments to Chile's heroes. It is her hall of 
fame, not shut in by four walls, but placed 
in the midst of this most frequented of her 
promenades, among the trees and flowers 
and the fountains and lakes, where "the 
stories told in marble and bronze may inspire 
the multitude to patriotism and courage;" 
and, facing the driveways along the sides, are 
many of the handsomest of the residences. 
The old center of the city is marked by the 
famous Plaza de Armas, with a marble mon- 
ument representing South America receiving 
her baptism of fire in the war of independ- 
ence. On one side are the Cathedral and 
Bishop's Palace, on another the splendid 
Municipal and Intendencia Buildings, low 
and massive, and Government Telegraph Of- 
fice; on another, two long series of shops 
opening out on fine arcades that extend the 
whole length of the sidewalks from corner to 
corner. 

Opposite the Plaza O'Higgins, a few 
blocks away, is the Congressional Palace, 

302 



CHILE 

which occupies the whole square and is one 
of the largest and handsomest buildings in 
South America. In architectural design it 
looks somewhat like the Senate and House 
wings of our Capitol at Washington, only of 
course it is much larger than either mere 
wing; and in the same district is the Casa de 
Moneda (the Mint), in which the President 
and Cabinet have their offices, a massive struc- 
ture as big as our Washington Treasury, and 
the beautiful Palace of Fine Arts. 

It is around the plaza that society takes its 
customary stroll in the evenings and the 
dusky-eyed, black-haired senoritas } according 
to the Latin custom, flirt as much as they dare 
with the young exquisites, who frankly and 
boldly admire with glances more eloquent 
than words. Writing of this custom, which 
would not be tolerated in our cities, Arthur 
Ruhl says that — 

"They are dapper and very confident young men" 
(these oglers), "combining in their demeanor the gal- 
lantry of their Spanish inheritance with a certain 
bumptiousness rather characteristically Chilean. 
They stare at those who pass — some in mantos, some 
in French dresses with Paris hats — and in Spanish 
murmur, half audibly, such observations as, 'I like 
the blonde best,' or 'Give me the little one.' And, as 

303 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

they still retain some of that simplicity which in the 
interior causes a stranger to be watched as though 
he were a camel or a calliope, they will stare even at 
the gringo, comment on the cut of his clothes or 
facetiously compare his blunt walking boots with 
their long, thin ones. They are rather irritating 
sometimes, especially the young officers in their smart 
German uniforms, and one dreams of home and a 
Broadway policeman marching down upon them 
leisurely with a night-stick and fanning them away." 

Though why he should have mentioned 
a "blonde" in illustrating their comments, one 
must wonder. Maybe it was because there 
are so few. As a rule their hair and eyes, if 
not black, are a dark, rich brown, and their 
complexion of the clear, cream-tinted, bru- 
nette type. "But," he continues — 

"The young women do not mind it at all. . . . 
And you will not make yourself at all popular by 
sympathizing, for they would only laugh and say: 
'Oh, they're all right. That's only their way of be- 
ginning. They're quite sensible and nice when you 
come to know them.' There are ways and ways, and 
in South America a girl who may not receive a formal 
call from a man without having her mother and half 
the family in the room at the same time may blandly 
listen to repartee that would make our maidens gasp 
for breath. ... It is at dusk, particularly if the 
band is playing, or if it is Sunday, that the prom- 
enade begins round the Plaza — a row of spectators 

304 



CHILE 

on the inside benches, on the outside young idlers and 
officers two or three deep — between two shuffling con- 
centric circles, in one of which are the men, in the 
other the shrinking senoritas, two by two, or hang- 
ing on the arm of a protector. Every man who can 
sport a top-hat and a pair of saffron gloves, if it 
is Sunday, and all the women except the very austere 
ones, gather here and circle round in that armed 
neutrality of the sexes which is the tradition of their 
blood." 

In general style Santiago is not as mod- 
ern as Valparaiso, though it is far more in- 
teresting and attractive, and is not behind 
in public utilities, educational facilities, and 
energy — or in the attractiveness of their 
street-car service, for here, too, the conduc- 
tors are neatly uniformed women, lots of 
them young and good-looking. Many of the 
more pretentious residences are old family 
mansions of the Moorish, characteristically 
Spanish colonial type and, therefore, charm- 
ing to a stranger from the north. Most of 
them are like those described in the chapter on 
Uruguay — built around a large square central 
court or patio, filled with flower-beds and 
palms and with galleries around the sides onto 
which the rooms of the upper stories open. 
These galleries serve the same purpose as our 

305 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

interior hallways. They are usually sup- 
ported by substantial but graceful stone 
arches and piers, and are reached by handsome 
stairways, also of stone, leading up from the 
court. Very often there is a fountain and 
sometimes statuary, and through the big gate- 
ways when the ponderous iron-studded doors 
happen to be open, delicious glimpses may be 
caught in passing. The windows opening on 
the streets are usually heavily barred, and the 
outer walls are in many cases frescoed and 
tinted and ornamented with wreaths and vases 
of stucco. Some few of the great houses are 
massive stone affairs of modern construction 
that resemble the mansions on the fashionable 
residence streets of our principal northern 
cities. 

Like all the greater South American towns, 
Santiago has her museums, libraries, magnifi- 
cent municipal theater and places of popular 
amusement; and she has her clubs and race- 
course and public gatherings of the fashion- 
ables, who are as elegantly dressed and smart- 
looking as those of Buenos Aires — though she 
still has her religious processions too on the 
great feast days, and all the ladies still wear 
their black, shroudlike mantos to church. 

306 



CHILE 

Disfiguring and funereal as it is, this is an 
observance that is still insisted on by the 
priests. In short, though differing from our 
capitals in many respects, this greatest city in 
Chile is obviously a metropolis and offers op- 
portunities for sightseeing and amusements 
of every description that few cities in the 
world can surpass. And, as in Lima, there 
is an aristocracy here, descended directly from 
the old Conquistadore stock, that has retained 
its wealth and power in the land through all 
the vicissitudes of both the colonial and re- 
publican regimes. 

in 

The long series of groups of islands be- 
ginning with Chiloe, about two-thirds of the 
way down the coast, is said to be nothing 
more than a partly submerged section of the 
Western Cordillera. Above the surface of 
the water, for a distance of about eighty 
miles, they still have an average elevation of 
about two thousand feet. Embraced in the 
Chonos Archipelago, between Chiloe and the 
Taytao Peninsula, are more than a thou- 
sand small islands, rocks, and reefs, and then 
come the large islands of Wellington, Madre 

307 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

de Dios, Chatham, Hanover, Queen Ade- 
laide, King William's Land, etc., each fringed 
by groups of little ones and all following the 
mainland in a graceful curve and separated 
from it by the Messier, Sarmiento, and 
Smyth Channels, which, together, extend for 
three hundred and sixty miles, from the 
Penas Gulf to the Strait of Magellan. As 
the steamer glides through, at times so 
straight are they and such is the uniformity 
of the shore line on either side, one fancies 
one's self in a wide river in the interior of the 
continent; at others, when openings among 
the islands appear and the water stretches 
for miles toward the sea or far into the re- 
cesses of the Cordillera, it seems more like a 
great lake. 

The fjordlike formations recall the more 
celebrated channel off the coast of Norway 
leading to the North Cape. Indeed, it is 
generally agreed by those who have seen both 
that there is little to choose between them, 
for, in both, the indentations and mountains 
of the coast and islands are similar in charac- 
ter; if there is less variety in the Chilean one, 
if the rainstorms are more frequent, to com- 
pensate for it there is a much greater and 

308 



CHILE 

more attractive wealth of vegetation. From 
the water's edge to a height of fourteen or 
fifteen hundred feet, the slopes, and even the 
smaller islands, are covered with an unbroken 
mantle of beautiful, dense, green forest that 
presents an astonishing contrast, in this in- 
hospitable region, to the bleak, gray rocks 
and bluish-tinted ice sheets above and the 
pure white snow caps on the summits be- 
yond. 

In the country from Valdivia south to 
Smyth Channel, many of the trees, partic- 
ularly in the ravines and sheltered places, are 
tall and shapely and their trunks and lower 
branches are incrusted with mosses and en- 
twined with flowering creepers and vines, 
many with a sort of mistletoe that has clus- 
ters of dark-red blossoms; one of the creep- 
ers, called angel's hair, is delicate and filmy 
and hangs from the branches like threads of 
lace, and there is an undergrowth of ferns 
and shrubs and bamboo. These last often 
shoot up as far as the tops of the trees and 
seem to mat them together t so that they form 
arbors over the pathways between. Farther 
south and in the region of the Strait, these 
woods lose something of their mysterious 

309 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

beauty; here they are composed principally 
of antarctic beech, gnarled and bent by the 
winds, and the thicketlike undergrowth is 
somber and forbidding. 

Emerging from the channel, for the first 
time the steamer encounters heavy rollers, 
which come dashing in through the broad 
gateway to the Pacific, not far to the west. 
Here, even in summer, it is seldom that there 
is neither storm nor fog, but, when it is clear 
enough, one can see the tempest-torn promon- 
tory of Cape Pillar, at the end of Desolation 
Island, the southwestern portal of the Strait. 
Eastward the conditions improve; the water 
grows smooth again and the clouds are usu- 
ally lifted above the lower mountain tops ; the 
scenery grows still more impressive than in 
the channel — only it is solemnly impressive 
now — at least, so it strikes most travelers. 
The Strait is much wider; the steamer is far 
enough away from the shore to enable one 
to see above the shoulders of the mountains 
to their summits, yet not so far that the dis- 
tance renders them too indistinct; the water 
is steel gray, the bases and buttresses of the 
mountains take on a shade of purple, the 
summits seem whiter than ever, and over all, 

310 



CHILE 

except during the comparatively rare inter- 
vals when the sun shines, are leaden clouds. 
In the center of the Strait, where the conti- 
nent proper comes to a wedge-shaped point 
known as Cape Froward, and up to the east- 
ern arm, only a few miles away, lies Punta 
Arenas, the southernmost city in the world. 

In the jumble of ranges forming the 
transmagellan continuation of the great Cor- 
dillera of the Andes, the most important is 
that named after the scientist, Charles Dar- 
win, who was the first to explore it, on the 
long western arm of the Island of Tierra 
del Fuego. The highest and most conspicu- 
ous happens to be the nearest to this remark- 
able port, and, as no better idea of the region 
in general could be conveyed, it seems to me, 
I quote from the story of a visit to Mt. Sar- 
miento, made by Sir Martin Conway the 
same summer he climbed Aconcagua, rather 
than attempt a description myself. He says: 

"The sun was shining quite hotly and the ice was 
almost dazzlingly brilliant. After scrambling with 
difficulty onto the glacier and wandering about the 
moraine area, we returned toward the shore, finding 
an exit through the forest at a much narrower place. 
The air was cool, the sun bright; there were little 

311 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

puffs of breeze; it was the very perfection of a day 
for active open-air life. Yet the clouds still hung 
stationary on the summit of Sarmiento. We lay 
awhile on the shore beside the rippling waters; then 
rowed away in hopes of seeing our mountain's misty 
veil lifted if only for a moment. The long, late mid- 
summer sunset was at hand. A tender pink light, 
far fainter than the rich radiance of the Alpine glow, 
lay upon the surface of the glacier and empurpled its 
crevasses ; it permeated the mist aloft. The cruel 
rocks, incrusted with ice, and the roof of the final 
precipice, with its steep ridges and icy couloirs, were 
all that could be seen. The graceful, ice-rounded 
foundation rocks of this and all the other mountains 
around slope up to the cliff and jagged aretes above 
and make each peak beautiful with contrasted forms, 
massive, yet suave of outline beneath, splintered and 
aspiring above. In one direction we looked along the 
channel of our approach, in another, for twenty miles 
or so, along Cockburn Channel, with a fine range of 
snowy peaks beside it, prolonging Sarmiento's west- 
ern range. 

"The water was absolutely still; we floated with 
oars drawn in. Looking once more aloft, I found 
the mist grown thinner. The pink light crept higher 
and higher as the cloud dissolved. Suddenly — so 
suddenly that all who saw it cried out — far above this 
cloud, surprisingly, incredibly high, appeared a point 
of light like a glowing coal drawn from a furnace. 
The fiery glow crept down and down as though driv- 
ing the mist away, till there stood before us, as it 
were, a mighty pillar of fire, with a wreath of mist 
around the base, and, down through all the wonderful 
pink wall and cataract of ice to the black forest and 

312 



CHILE 

reflecting water. We had seen the final peak now — 
a tower of ice-crusted rock, utterly inaccessible from 
the western side. A little while later, the fair couloir 
had faded away, mists had gathered and night was 
coming on apace. We rowed away for the steamer, 
but had not gone very far before a faint silver point 
appeared above the mist where the glowing tower had 
stood. The cloud curtain rolled slowly down again 
and all the summit crest was revealed, cold and pure. 
Then the southwest ridge appeared, and finally the 
entire mountain, like a pale ghost, illuminated by 
some unearthly light. A moment later the clouds 
rolled together once more and solid night came on; 
we hastened to the steamer for warmth, food, and 
sleep." 



313 



VIII 



PERU 



NORTHWARD bound from Valparaiso 
to Callao, the traveler leaves behind 
him the last of those south temperate 
zone Latins who contend for the title of 
"Yankees of South America." (And there 
is flattery in that pretension if they but knew 
it, for in the old strongholds of our vaunted 
Yankeeism much of the feverish progressive- 
ness has subsided; in these days the title 
"Argentino" or "Chileno" would confer a 
real distinction on some of us of the North.) 
In Chile one leaves triumphant modernism 
and now enters the realm of antiquity and 
romance, the home of Spanish tradition and 
old-world stateliness. Not even on the Pe- 
ninsula have the Spanish tongue, the Span- 
ish dignity and the old Castilian ideals been 
preserved in their pristine charm and per- 
fection as they have in Lima, and the three 
ancient seats of colonial splendor hidden away 

314 



PERU 

in the fastnesses of the northern Andes — 
Quito, Bogota and Caracas, the capitals of 
the countries next in order. 

Not that romance and <antiquity are all 
that Peru and her sister republics to the 
north stand for to-day. If Argentina, Uru- 
guay, and Paraguay, which constitute the 
agricultural empire spurned by Spain in 
her days of prosperity, are, as John Bar- 
rett says in the Independent for March 11, 
1909, destined, with Brazil, "to become 
deciding factors in the food supply of man- 
kind," Peru and the other Andean republics 
have also their part to play in furnishing 
elements necessary for the growing commerce 
of the twentieth century. "The complicated 
social and financial life of the world," Mr. 
Barrett goes on, "must have something be- 
sides food and drink. Gold and silver as 
a medium of exchange, and, in the arts, 
copper and tin as essentials in so many 
phases of industrial development, the other 
metals useful in a thousand ways in applied 
science, the nitrate salts for prime necessities 
in both peace and war — all these and much 
more are to-day supplied in high proportion 
from this part of South America." Deprive 

315 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

the world of the nitrate of Chile, the copper, 
gold, and guano of Peru, and the silver and tin 
of Bolivia, and "there would occur a dis- 
turbance in our business machinery which 
might have very serious consequences." 

In preference to the more direct German 
line, the visitor should by all means make the 
trip northward by a "west coaster," that cross 
between an Atlantic liner and a river steam- 
boat which meanders leisurely in and out 
among the Pacific ports and carries a con- 
glomerate of all types of the genus Latin 
American, and of all the products of his 
infinitely varied soil. As one writer whim- 
sically describes it, it has all the character- 
istics of a house-boat, freight carrier, village 
gossip and market gardener. With no cause 
to fear rain or rough weather, the ocean here 
being truly "pacific," the builders of these 
boats have placed all cabins on deck, and even 
thus they seem superfluous except as lockers 
for luggage, for the heat keeps one always in 
the open. 

Here the newcomer to these shores talks 
politics or crops or railroad concessions with 
the substantial hacendado returning to his 
plantation, or haggles interminably with the 

316 



PERU 

cholo woman who offers for sale woven hats 
of jipi-japa straw (known commercially as 
Panamas), little golden images unearthed 
from Inca ruins, or imitations of them fash- 
ioned from vegetable ivory, great white- 
pulped, juicy pineapples, leather belts of 
exquisite workmanship, brilliantly colored 
ponchos, and the inevitable convent embroid- 
eries and laces. These women spend much 
of their lives on board, traveling back and 
forth between Valparaiso and Panama, and 
in their allotted corners sell everything from 
candied sugar cane wrapped in banana leaves 
to emerald necklaces. It is said that one 
old woman on a recent trip actually had 
hoisted aboard a live cow, which she would 
have sold piecemeal, in steaks, if the long- 
suffering captain had not protested that his 
ship was no slaughter-house. 

And, besides the surfeit of "local color" one 
gets on the ship, the traveler has an excellent 
opportunity to study that vague institution 
known as international trade, at a familiarly 
close range. The terms "exports" and "im- 
ports" mean little to him until he sees huge 
cases of sewing machines marked "Hamburg 
— fragile," or sections of milling machinery 

317 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

from Chicago, or something of the sort, 
swung over the side into the lighters, and 
later sees other lighters towed from shore 
laden with curious little bales of Panama 
hats, or cotton, or casks of rum, and all the, 
to him, exotic products of a different world. 
Always wonderful, the mighty ramparts of 
the Andes rise tier upon tier from the reddish 
strij) of desert shore, first in solid black, then 
in slaten pallor to the misty heights of in- 
land distance where the peaks are ill-defined 
against the sky, except when the sun burns 
through the haze and makes brilliant for a 
moment some snow-capped summit floating 
apparently in mid-air four miles above. Ever 
northward the lazy coaster dozes on her 
course, dropping in at Iquique, parched and 
stifling, or Arica where the sun-baked ni- 
trate lies piled for shipment in such 
quantities as fairly to blister the imag- 
ination, or Mollendo, the other open door to 
Bolivia's wealth; and, finally, after a fort- 
night of such coasting, one enters Callao, the 
port of Lima, which is only nine miles away, 
up the valley. Situated in the center of 
Peru's coast line, Callao is the busy exchange 
for the bulk of the country's commerce. Its 

318 



PERU 

population is about 35,000. Most of its busi- 
ness men, however, live in Lima and look 
upon the port city as the Chileans do on Val- 
paraiso, merely as the "down town" district 
of the capital. 

Arriving in port the traveler's thoughts 
instinctively turn back through the four cen- 
turies of white dominion over the country; 
and he pictures in his mind the stirring trag- 
edies of Spanish conquest and the colonial 
regime in this dazzling colonial empire won 
from the Incas. Until 1717 the Viceroy of 
Peru held sway over the whole of South 
America except the then Portuguese Col- 
ony of Brazil. On that date the Viceroyalty 
of Santa Fe or New Granada (embracing 
what is now Colombia and Ecuador) and the 
Captaincy-General of Venezuela were created 
and severed from his jurisdiction; and in 1776 
it was reduced to the dimensions occupied 
by the present Republic, by the creation of 
the Viceroyalty of Buenos Aires, which in- 
cluded territory now occupied by Argentina, 
Uruguay, Paraguay, and Bolivia (then known 
as the Province of Alto Peru). The Cap- 
taincy-General of Chile had always enjoyed 
a high degree of autonomy and retained it 

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THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

until complete independence was gained by 
the revolution. 

Although mightily shrunken from its 
former imperial estate, Peru is still a mag- 
nificent domain. Its area of 680,000 square 
miles is equal to the combined areas of Texas, 
Nevada, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico; 
its coast-line of 1500 miles is as extensive 
as our Atlantic coast from Maine to Georgia. 
The country is divided longitudinally into 
three distinct regions: the coast, the Cordil- 
lera, and the so-called Montana, or wooded 
slopes, the latter stretching away into the 
Amazon valley. Along the Pacific coast is 
a ribbon of dry, tropical lowland, varying in 
width from twenty to eighty miles, and reach- 
ing up to the foothills of the coast range. On 
these foothills, and increasing gradually in 
number, through the extension of the irri- 
gating systems toward the sea, lie extensive 
plantations of cotton and sugar, which form a 
large part of Peru's exports. But the coastal 
stretches are, for the most part, still unre- 
claimed desert, for, as in the nitrate region 
of Chile, the rain falls so seldom that, with- 
out irrigation, nothing can grow. The ex- 
planation given by the scientists is that the 

320 



PERU 

moisture from the Atlantic, swept across the 
continent by the African trade winds, lodges 
finally in the Andes and flows back over the 
continental valleys in the great rivers con- 
fluent with the Amazon, while that from the 
Pacific is diverted in some other direction. It 
has been demonstrated by experiment, how- 
ever, that these arid parts need only irriga- 
tion to make them luxuriantly fertile. 

Back of the coast the country is cast in a 
mold of heroic dimensions. Here the Andes 
spread out into separate Cordilleras which are 
joined at intervals by transverse ranges, form- 
ing great nudos (knots), with high plateaux 
between, surrounded by lofty snow-covered 
peaks. This mountainous area approximates 
three hundred miles in width. In these 
heights lay the wealth that made of Peru a 
fabulous treasure land, and in the lower val- 
leys the cereals and fruits of the temperate 
zone, as well as cattle, provide in great abund- 
ance for the Peruvian of to-day. In her ex- 
tensive guano deposits, too, Peru has another 
great source of wealth. 

Descending the eastern slopes of the Cor- 
dillera, the Montana region stretches away 
gradually into the Amazon valley, covering 

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THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

an immense area. This Montana country 
comprises more than two-thirds of the total 
area, and lies wholly within the Torrid 
Zone. Watered by mighty rivers that have 
their source in the Andean snows, and graded 
in elevation, its varied productiveness and 
fertility are phenomenal. It is in the Peru- 
vian Andes that the Amazon begins its long 
course to the Atlantic; the river, however, 
goes by the name of Maraflon throughout its 
length in Peru. In the beginning it is aug- 
mented by the Huallaga, Ucayali, and Yavari 
and a dozen more mighty streams having their 
sources in the same heights or in the foot- 
hills on the eastern slopes, and, while still 
within Peruvian territory, becomes a river 
of such immense depth that ocean liners steam 
clear across the continent to Iquitos, thus 
giving to Peru a port accessible from the 
Atlantic for her shipments of rubber and 
other tropical products. 

The disposition of the country's population 
of 4,500,000 inhabitants is significant of the 
history of the nation's development and sug- 
gestive of the prosperity that awaits her when 
the Andean barriers shall have been grid- 
ironed with the railroads that will open up the 

322 



PERU 

Amazon region to colonization some day. 
The coast areas now support a fourth of the 
total population, the cordilleras two-thirds, 
while the rich forests and fertile plains of the 
Montana — the country of Peru's present-day 
opportunity — support but half a million. 
The bulk of these inhabitants are of Indian 
and mixed Indian and Spanish descent. But 
little impression has yet been made by Eu- 
ropean immigration, as in the established 
agricultural republics of the Atlantic sea- 
board. It is confidently expected that the 
birth of the New Peru — the Peru of railroads, 
colonization, and great agricultural and min- 
ing activity — will reverse this disparity in 
distribution and increase the population to 
many times its present numbers, for now it is 
less than that of Holland, although Peru is 
three times the size of France. 

The New Peru, which is heralded by all 
recent visitors to the west coast republics, is 
building an industrial and commercial nation 
on the long smoldering ruins of Spain's 
golden empire, and it will be a worthier and 
more lasting structure than that with which 
Pizarro remorselessly smothered the unique 
civilization of the Incas. The war with Chile 

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THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

seemed to awaken her to the necessity of keep- 
ing pace with the times, not only in military 
but in commercial affairs. Since then she has 
made great strides. 

A short distance up the coast near 
Ecuador's port of Guayaquil lies the little 
town of Tumbez, where Pizarro landed with 
his troop of two hundred men and planted the 
banner of Castile in the Inca's domain. One 
of his first acts after establishing the power of 
Spain in the Inca country was to found a 
new capital nearer the coast than Cuzco, 
where, in the midst of the Andes, the Incas 
had for centuries had their seat of govern- 
ment. He chose the site of a pre-Incaic 
oracle on the Rimac River (the "river that 
speaks") where the legendary predecessors 
of the Incas came to make their vows. For 
nearly three hundred years this city, which is 
now called Lima, but which he christened 
the City of the Kings, enjoyed the distinction 
of being the "second metropolis" of the great 
Spanish Empire on two continents and the 
center of a viceregal court, the splendor of 
which rivaled that of royalty itself. Stately 
palaces and churches were soon erected; wide 
avenues and beautiful plazas were laid out 



PERU 

and substantial walls constructed for defense, 
and here came in the viceroy's train the 
proudest nobility of Spain. 

Lima is reached by both railroad and trolley 
line from Callao, and lies on a broad, fertile 
plain on the left bank of the river. Fifty 
miles back of the city the great chain of the 
Andes passes; but spurs from the majestic 
range stretch down and enclose it as within 
an amphitheater. Lima is only five hundred 
feet above sea-level, and in the summer season 
unquestionably hot, although the cool breezes 
from the Pacific temper the climate to a cer- 
tain extent. In general appearance the early 
writers likened it to Seville; to-day, as the 
capital of a progressive republic, it has broad- 
ened out and become more active than its 
dreamy Andalusian prototype. As in Santi- 
ago and the old parts of Buenos Aires, the 
business and poorer residence streets gener- 
ally are narrow and paved with cobble-stones, 
and 'most of the buildings are two or three 
stories high. In the better residence sections 
the visitor is agreeably surprised to find 
the charm of other days still remaining in 
the massive wooden street doors studded with 
brass, barred windows and Moorish balconies, 

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THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

or miradores, of heavily carved mahogany, 
and beautiful patios. The famous old Torre- 
Tagle mansion, where so many of the viceroys 
lived, is still standing to perpetuate this 
interesting type, as in the older tropical 
Spanish cities. Portales, or arcades, extend 
along the sides of the plazas in front of the 
shops to afford shelter from the sun. 

The great cathedral and the government 
palace of the same period flank two sides 
of the Plaza Mayor. On the third side stands 
the city hall, above which are the balconies 
of the principal social clubs. Near by is the 
old Inquisition building. In the high-domed 
and mahogany-paneled room in which the 
Holy Office sat, the Senate now holds its 
sessions and signs the laws of the republic on 
the very table whence in the old days were 
issued warrants for autos da fe, and the legis- 
lators now hang their hats in the former 
torture chamber, in fine disregard of the 
horrors it once witnessed. There is a vener- 
ableness attached to the old churches and 
convents abounding in Lima which makes 
one hope that the exigencies of modernism 
may not demand the destruction of these 
splendid relics of colonial architecture. 

326 



PERU 

The Plaza Mayor was the very heart of 
the brilliant colonial regime. The courtly 
Dons of these days, many of whom are de- 
scendants of the principal courtiers of that 
period, still are delighted to tell of the bril- 
liance of the viceregal court under the 
Marquis de Cafiete or the Duke de Palata, 
or the dilettante Prince de Esquilache — a 
court that was the talk of two continents. In 
the gorgeous salons of the old palace the 
gayety reached its height in the days of the 
Viceroy Amat. It is not surprising to learn 
that the deposed Ferdinand VII would gladly 
have followed the example of the Portuguese 
king and moved with his court to his new- 
world capital had he been able to escape from 
the grasp of Napoleon. At one corner is the 
site of the house in which Pizarro fought in 
vain with his assassins. His skeleton now lies 
in a glass case in the cathedral, exposed to the 
visitor's astonished gaze. In the center of 
the Plaza a beautiful bronze fountain has 
stood for three hundred years, untouched by 
the strife that surged about it as each new 
period of Peru's stormy career was ushered 
in. 

In the Plaza de la Exposicion, on the 
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THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

Paseo Colon and in other parks and boule- 
vards are erected the statues of the nation's 
heroes, and other men who have made Peru's 
history — Christopher Columbus, the two Lib- 
erators, San Martin and Bolivar, Colonel 
Bolognesi, who fell in the war with Chile, 
refusing to surrender "until we have burned 
our last cartridge," and many others. The 
Paseo Colon runs through the fashionable 
residence section. It is one hundred and 
fifty feet wide and connects the Plazas Bo- 
lognesi and Exposition. Through the center 
runs a garden bordered with superb trees 
and artistically laid out flower-beds and 
flowering bushes, and interspersed at inter- 
vals with monuments, pillars, and fountains. 
The present day parade of the gente decente 
gives the visitor a picture of beautiful women 
and well-groomed equipages that measures 
up to the best traditions of Peru's social 
eminence. In the heart of the city is the 
great bull ring, where once society gathered 
for other purposes than merely to take the air. 
Excellent electric car service is a feature 
of Lima's modern improvements. Trolley 
lines extend to the many seaside resorts for 
which society deserts the capital in the hot- 

328 



PERU 

test months — Chorillos, the Newport of Peru, 
just south of Callao, or Miraflores, Barranco, 
Ancon and the numerous imitations of Coney 
Island. 

Too much cannot be said of the charm of 
Lima's culture and refinement. If the 
Limeiios have inherited from their ancestors 
too much of the aristocratic pride and mili- 
tary arrogance that distinguish the Penin- 
sulare, they have also fallen heir to the courtly 
grace and savoir faire that made the Knights 
of Alcantara famous among the first gentle- 
men in Europe four centuries ago. From 
the Lima home of to-day the visitor will take 
away with him recollections of hospitality, 
kindness and old-world dignity, lightened by 
a pronounced keenness of wit. They have 
the reputation of being generous and hos- 
pitable, if inclined to extravagance, and of 
forming warm and lasting friendships. Ar- 
dent imaginations and brilliant intellects lend 
a charm to conversation with the men, only 
less than that which the world-famed beauty, 
intelligence and kindly courtesy of the women 
lend to theirs. Very reserved when on their 
way to church in their black mantos or prom- 
enading the Alameda in their handsome toi- 

329 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

lettes, these ladies exert themselves to make 
their homes agreeable to their guests. The 
behavior of the young girls on the Alameda 
is more like that of their Chilean sisters. 

At the head of Peru's educational system 
stands the fine old University of San Marcos, 
in Lima, founded in 1551 — nearly a hundred 
years before Harvard received its charter. 
It has now many additions and covers all 
branches of learning, and its courses are 
thrown open to every class. 

Peru's railroads cover but fifteen hundred 
miles, but they are pushing forward rapidly to 
fill in its section of the long-promised Pan- 
American railway from Panama to Patagonia. 
One of these, the Oroya road, which ascends 
from Lima up into the plateau country, is alto- 
gether the most impressive piece of railroad 
engineering in the world; it is not only the 
highest, but there is no other that lifts its 
wondering passengers to any such altitude in 
such an appallingly short space of time. For 
an hour or more the train winds through a 
wide, irrigated valley, green and prosperous- 
looking with plantations of sugar cane. 
Farther up, the valley narrows and is closed 
in by naked rocks. Twenty-five miles from 

330 



PERU 

Lima a station is reached twenty-eight hun- 
dred feet above the sea; twelve miles farther 
the altitude is five thousand feet. At Casa- 
palca, the town of smelters, thirteen thousand 
six hundred feet is achieved by the puffing, 
vibrating engine; at fourteen thousand feet 
the chimneys of Casapalca's smelters look 
like pins stuck in the green carpet below, 
and finally, the passenger descends from the 
train, very uncertain on his feet, at the un- 
precedented height of 15,665 feet, and stands 
on the cold, wind-swept Andean roof. On 
every hand are peaks and hoods of snow. 
Beyond the station the rechristened Mount 
Meiggs rises another two thousand feet, as a 
monument to the indefatigable Yankee pro- 
moter and soldier of fortune who conceived 
and built the road — Henry Meiggs. 

Turning to the west, one looks back over 
the long, infinitely varied descent; to the east 
lie the plateaus and the Andean treasure land. 
The northern branch of the road continues 
along almost equally high levels, past the 
historic plains of Junin on which Bolivar 
dealt his crushing blow to the viceroy's army in 
1824, to Cerro de Pasco, where the American 
mining syndicate is preparing to get rich. 

331 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

II 

A still more extensive railroad and one 
which gives the traveler a more varied view of 
the Andes, is that ascending from the port city' 
of Mollendo, near the Chilean frontier. This 
line is the outlet for much of the commerce 
of Bolivia, and was built by the same gifted 
Yankee who fathered the Oroya road. Leav- 
ing Mollendo, the train speeds over the desert 
for a few miles and then begins its steady 
climb upward. All day it labors along the 
tortuous ascent through echoing walls of rock, 
bare, repellent, and awe-inspiring in their cold 
majesty. Suddenly, around a jagged preci- 
pice, the passengers look down upon a lovely 
valley — an oasis of green. In its midst lies 
the quaint, picturesque old city of Arequipa, 
which Pizarro, who founded it, was wont to 
call la villa hermosa — the city beautiful. Seen 
from the heights, it somewhat resembles La 
Paz, a group of low, white and blue walled, 
red roofed buildings, arranged in squares, 
with a large plaza in the center, the general 
flatness relieved by many church spires, and 
its spacious patios a mass of foliage and trees. 

Thus far the penetration of the railroad 
332 



PERU 

into this quiet retreat has produced but little 
change in its old-world aspect. It has long 
been famous for its delightful climate and 
location, and as Mozans truly says of it, "If 
it is not the most beautiful place in South 
America, as its admirers claim, it is certainly 
the most restful. It is such a place as one 
would like to retire to after the stress and 
storms of a busy career, to pass one's days in 
quiet and a congenial environment. The 
people who retain all the light-heartedness 
and cordiality and culture of old Spain, are 
worthy denizens of their charming city, and 
the better one knows them, the more he ad- 
mires and loves them." 

Overlooking the city are the buildings of a 
branch of the Harvard Observatory. It is 
said that, because of the remarkable clearness 
of the atmosphere and the great number of 
cloudless nights, this observatory is probably 
more favorably located than any other in the 
world, and that, as a consequence, the astron- 
omers stationed there have achieved results of 
the greatest value to science, especially in 
photographing the southern skies. Also they 
are doing valuable work in measuring the 
heights of the Andean peaks and charting 

333 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

the general topography, as well as in keeping 
open house to their fellow-countrymen who 
hunger for the sound of their native tongue 
after many weeks of effort to comprehend 
the idioms of the Castilian speech and the 
patois of the ever-present cholo. The veran- 
das and trim green lawns and tennis courts 
are a reminder of Cambridge, indeed. 

Above the observatory, snow-capped Misti 
rises sheer from the valley some 21,000 feet, 
like a perfect cone. Its appearance is so 
distinct, so impressive in its constancy and 
brooding grandeur, that it possesses a per- 
sonality almost human. One feels impelled 
to address it with the prefix "Senor" after 
the manner of the Japanese with their Fuji- 
san, which, by the way, greatly resembles 
Misti in shape and location. 

Continuing upward through the mountain 
desert, the Mollendo road ascends to a height 
of 14,666 feet in the short latitudinal distance 
of less than two hundred miles, and across the 
divide to Juliaca, a town near the northern 
shore of Lake Titicaca, where it separates, 
one branch extending south to Puno, the cen- 
ter of the gold mining district, thence around 
the great lake to La Paz, the other extending 

334 



PERU 

northwest for about two hundred miles, down 
the sloping plateau to the valley of Cuzco, at 
the head of which is the ancient imperial capi- 
tal of the Incas. Plantations and pastures 
begin to appear as the train descends from the 
high ridges into the plain, and, great as is the 
altitude even here, on an island in this very 
lake, according to tradition, the remarkable 
native dynasty had its birth. The legend, as 
Mozans quotes it from the works of Garcilaso 
de la Vega, the historian of the conquest, and 
who was himself, through his mother, a de- 
scendant of the royal Inca line, is that — 

"Our Father, the Sun, seeing the human race in the 
condition I have described: living like wild beasts, 
without religion or government, or town or houses, 
without cultivating the land or clothing their bodies, 
for they knew not how to weave cotton or wool to make 
clothes ; living in caves or clefts in the rocks, or in 
caverns under the ground; eating the herbs of the 
field and roots and fruit, like wild animals, and also 
human flesh — had compassion on them and sent down 
from heaven to the earth a son and a daughter to in- 
struct them in the knowledge of our Father, the Sun, 
that they might adore him and adopt him as their 
God, also to give them precepts and laws by which 
to live as reasonable and civilized men and to teach 
them to live in houses and towns, to cultivate maize 
and other crops, to breed flocks, to use the fruits of 
the earth like rational beings instead of living like 

335 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

wild beasts. With these commands and intentions, 
our Father, the Sun, placed his two children in the 
Lake of Titicaca, which is eighty leagues from here" 
(Cuzco); "and he said to them that they might go 
where they pleased, and that, at every place where 
they stopped to eat or sleep, they were to thrust a 
scepter of gold into the ground, which was half a 
yard long and two fingers in thickness. He gave them 
this staff as a sign and token that in the place where, 
by one blow on the earth, it should sink down and dis- 
appear, there it was the desire of our Father, the Sun, 
that they should remain and establish their court." 

In this region the table-land is of vast ex- 
panse, and in many respects the panorama is 
more impressive even than that in the vicinity 
of Aconcagua. In the center is the enormous 
sheet of water, turquoise blue in the sunlight, 
stretching for a hundred and ten miles off to 
the south, with an average width of thirty 
miles and an average depth of a hundred 
fathoms, and, 12,500 feet high as it is, bor- 
dered on either side by superb ranges tower- 
ing many thousands of feet higher, their 
clean-cut peaks glittering with mantles of 
snow and ice. Around the shore and on the 
islands of Titicaca and Koati are picturesque 
towns and small clusters of adobe houses 
surrounded by hills, their sides terraced and 
covered with farms, the water fringed with 

336 



PERU 

fields of reeds, and feeding in them countless 
birds and herds of cattle. It is no wonder 
that these " Children of the Sun " should 
have worshiped as their God and Goddess 
the great luminous orbs in a region where, 
thanks to the unwonted splendor of the moon 
and stars, which enable one to distinguish 
all the salient features of lake and Cordillera 
with the greatest ease, the nights, as Mozans 
says, are glorious beyond words; but where, 
"however fair the views presented to the en- 
raptured gaze in the subdued light of the 
moon and her attendant handmaidens, no one 
can be insensible to the gorgeous vistas that 
burst upon the vision during the daytime." It 
is then, he continues — 

"Especially at the hours of dawn and twilight that 
the snow-crested range of the lofty Cordillera Real is 
visible in all its transcendent beauty and majesty. 
For then, as if by magic, various colored fires seem to 
blaze from the immense glaciers and snow fields and 
to convert the sparkling expanse into glowing rubies, 
sapphires, and emeralds, while the lofty peaks of the 
Sorata range are transformed into gleaming pinnacles 
of burnished gold. Then in fullest perfection and 
palpable form is realized that vision of mountain love- 
liness, that crowning splendor of earth and sky, set 
forth in Ruskin's noble lines : 'Wait yet for one hour, 
until the east again becomes purple and the heaving 

337 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

mountains, rolling against it in the darkness like 
waves of a wild sea, are drowned one by one in the 
glory of its burning. Watch the white glaciers blaze 
in their winding paths about the mountains, like 
mighty serpents with scales of fire ; watch the columnar 
peaks of solitary snow, kindling downwards, chasm 
by chasm, each in itself a new morning — their long 
avalanches cast down in keen streams brighter than 
the lightning, sending each its tribute of driven snow, 
like altar-smoke, up to the heaven, the rose-light of 
their silent domes flushing that heaven about them 
and above them, piercing with purer light through its 
purple lines of lifted cloud, casting a new glory on 
every wreath as it passes by, until the whole heaven, 
one scarlet canopy, is interwoven with a roof of wav- 
ing flame, and tossing, vault beyond vault, as with the 
drifted wings of many companies of angels.' " 

The railroad has been built along the very 
route that the first Inca and his sister-wife 
are said to have chosen when they started 
out to found their capital. Passing between 
two giant peaks, it descends the gradually 
sloping two-hundred-mile-long plateau which 
became the most populous section of the 
great empire, as it is still of modern Peru. 
On either side are torrential rivers that rush 
down through the deep defiles of the moun- 
tains to the Amazon. Every foot of the 
region is associated with legendary and his- 
toric events; scattered about everywhere, 

338 



PERU 

from the islands of Titicaca on, are wonder- 
ful ruins — ruins of towns, bridges, fortresses, 
temples, burial towers, some Incaic, some 
thought to be as old as the pyramids of 
Egypt. There is a lake in which, at the 
coming of the Spaniards, the Indians are 
said to have thrown the colossal gold chain 
that was forged at the birth of Huascar, a 
chain so heavy, according to the chroniclers, 
that it was all that two hundred men could do 
to carry it. 

The climate is delightful. All along the 
road is a succession of wild, gorgeous scenery, 
quaint towns and villages and big haciendas, 
with fields green with growing crops and 
herds of cattle and alpaca ranging about, 
often tended by pretty copper-colored chola 
(mixed breed) or Indian girls, as pictur- 
esquely dressed as those of La Paz, only 
here in Peru, instead of the great number of 
voluminous many-colored skirts the Bolivian 
women wear — sometimes as many as twelve 
or fifteen, which makes them appear as 
though they had on the hoops once worn by 
our grandmothers — they wear a single, short 
woolen skirt over the usual cotton ones, and, 
instead of the peculiar headdress of the 

339 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

Aymaras, broad-brimmed, gaily beribboned 
hats, though, like the Aymaras, they wear 
brilliantly colored mantles, fastened around 
the shoulders by a pin with a spoon-shaped 
head (which they also use as a spoon), and 
the men, like the Bolivian mountaineers, 
wear ponchos that vie with the mantles of 
the women in color. Ponchos and mantles 
like those worn to-day, but many centuries 
old, have been found in the tombs, so ancient 
is the fashion. 

It is in this country between La Paz and 
Cuzco that the llama is seen in greatest num- 
bers — that remarkable animal which Mozans 
aptly describes as a creature with the legs 
of a deer, the body of a sheep, and the head 
and neck of a camel. They are larger than 
sheep, however, and far more docile and 
ornamental than the ugly, ungainly camel. 
Their coats are of several shades: white, 
brown, black or parti-colored; their wool is 
long and thick, and they are noted for their 
beautiful big, wistfully inquiring eyes. From 
time immemorial the natives had used them 
as burden-bearers, and the Spaniards, when 
they came, found them surer-footed and more 
enduring than mules or burros, proof against 

340 



PERU 

cold and acclimated in the rarefied atmos- 
phere of the high table-lands, and able to go 
as long as a camel without food and water, 
and to maintain themselves by grazing along 
the waysides in parts of the country in which 
no other animal could live. It was on their 
backs that all the material that entered into 
the construction of the steamers on Lake 
Titicaca was hauled, and most of the mining 
machinery, and the caravans still compete 
with the railroads in carrying ores and coca 
to the coast and bringing back supplies for 
the mountain towns. 

In these days only the males are used for 
such purposes. It is said of them that when 
they are loaded with more than they feel 
that they can comfortably carry (about a 
hundred pounds), they lie right down in their 
tracks and refuse to budge for all the ca- 
joling or in spite of the kicks and curses 
their tenders can bestow. The females are 
kept in pasture for breeding purposes and 
for their wool and milk, and in that region 
rank with cattle as a source of food supply, 
for their flesh resembles mutton and is quite 
as palatable and good to eat. It is much 
used in the native dish called chwpe, a sort 

341 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

of thick soup which is made of the peculiar 
mountain potatoes grown in those parts, first 
frozen and dried, and then put into a pot 
and boiled with any other vegetables at hand 
and fragments of meat and fish, and seasoned 
with salt and red pepper. This, to the people 
of the mountains, is what rice is to the 
Chinese and macaroni to the Italians. Some- 
times it is the only fare the traveler can 
get at the little tambos or inns remote from 
the railroad; but even so, when properly pre- 
pared, as it usually is, with plenty of nourish- 
ing ingredients, it leaves little to be desired 
after a hard day's climb. 

The valley of Cuzco — a pocketlike depres- 
sion about ten miles long and varying in 
width from two to three miles, covered with 
fields of barley and maize, dotted with many 
attractive-looking gardens and country man- 
sions of the old Spanish colonial type, and 
hedged in on either side by ranges of moun- 
tains towering high above — is at the north- 
western extremity of the plateau. The city, 
which is at the head of the valley, is a little 
more than a mile and a half in breadth, from 
the foot of the mountain range on the east 
to that of the range on the west, and about 

342 



PERU ' 

a mile in length. To the north, the famous 
hill of Sacsahuaman rises abruptly over it 
and is separated from the mountains on either 
side by deep ravines, through one of which 
flows the little river Huatanay and through 
the other the Rodadero. The Huatanay 
tumbles noisily past the moss-grown walls 
of an old convent, under the houses forming 
the west side of the great square, thence 
through the center of a broad street, where 
it is confined between banks faced with ma- 
sonry and crossed by numerous bridges, and 
on beyond until it unites with the Rodadero, 
which separates the city from the suburb of 
San Bias. 

The most important section of the ancient 
city was built between the two little rivers, 
with the great square in the center, and this 
site, said to have been chosen for it by the 
first Inca and his sister-wife, is declared by 
many to be the most wildly, majestically 
beautiful of all the beautiful mountain city 
sites in South America — even Santiago, La 
Paz, Arequipa, Cajamarca, Quito, Bogota, 
and Caracas. Respecting the ancient city 
itself, Prescott tells us that the Spaniards 
were astonished "by the beauty of its edi- 

343 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

fices, the length and regularity of its streets, 
and the good order and appearance of com- 
fort, even luxury, visible in its numerous 
population. It far surpassed all they had 
seen in the New World. . . . It" (the 
great square), he continues, "was surrounded 
by low piles of buildings, among which were 
several palaces of the Incas. One of these, 
erected by Huayana Capac, was surmounted 
by a tower, while the ground floor was occu- 
pied by one or more immense halls, like those 
described in Cajamarca, where the Peruvian 
nobles held their fetes in stormy weather. 
The population of the city," he goes on — 

"Is computed by one of the conquerors at two hun- 
dred thousand inhabitants and that of the suburbs at 
as many more. This account is not confirmed, as far 
as I have seen, by any other writer. But, however it 
may be exaggerated, it is certain that Cuzco was the 
metropolis of a great empire, the residence of the 
court and the chief nobility, frequented by the most 
skillful mechanics and artisans of every description, 
who found a demand for their ingenuity in the royal 
precincts, while the place was garrisoned by a numer- 
ous soldiery, and was the resort, finally, of emigrants 
from the most distant provinces. The quarters whence 
this motley population came were indicated by their 
peculiar dress, and especially their head-gear, so rare- 
ly found at all on the American Indian, which, with 

344 



PERU 

its variegated colors, gave a picturesque effect to the 
groups and masses in the streets. . . . 

"The edifices of the better sort — and they were 
very numerous — were of stone, or faced with stone. 
Among the principal were the royal residences, as 
each sovereign built a new palace for himself, cover- 
ing, though low, a large extent of ground. The walls 
were stained or painted with gaudy tints, and the 
gates, we are assured, were sometimes of colored mar- 
ble. 'In the delicacy of the stonework,' says another 
of the conquerors, 'the natives far excelled the Span- 
iards, though the roofs of their dwellings, instead of 
tiles, were only of thatch, but put together with the 
nicest art.' The sunny climate of Cuzco did not re- 
quire a very substantial material for defense against 
the weather. . . . The streets were long and nar- 
row. They were arranged with perfect regularity, 
crossing one another at right angles ; from the great 
square diverged four principal streets connecting with 
the highroads of the empire. The square itself, and 
many parts of the city, were paved with fine pebble. 
Through the heart of the capital ran a river of pure 
water, if it might not be rather termed a canal, the 
banks or sides of which, for a distance of twenty 
leagues, were faced with stone. Across this stream, 
bridges, constructed of similar broad flags, were 
thrown at intervals, so as to afford an easy communi- 
cation between the different quarters. 

"The most sumptuous edifice in Cuzco in the times 
of the Incas was undoubtedly the great temple dedi- 
cated to the sun, which, studded with gold plates, as 
already noticed, was surrounded by convents and dor- 
mitories for the priests, with their gardens and broad 
parterres sparkling with gold. The exterior orna- 

345 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

merits had been already removed by the conquerors — 
all but the frieze of gold, which, imbedded in the 
stones, still encircled the principal building. . . . 
The fortress was raised to a height rare in Peruvian 
architecture, and from the summit of the tower the 
eye of the spectator ranged over a magnificent pros- 
pect, in which the wild features of the mountain 
scenery — rocks, woods, and waterfalls — were mingled 
with the rich verdure of the valley and the shining 
city filling up the foreground, all blended in sweet 
harmony under the deep azure of a tropical sky." 

The ruins of the palace of the first Inca, 
on the hill above the city, and those of the 
immense fortress on the summit — which is 
admitted by all to have been constructed with 
a degree of skill equaled nowhere else in the 
world prior to the use of artillery — are thus 
described by Sir Clements R. Markham: 

"On a terrace, built of stones of every conceivable 
size and shape, fitting exactly one into the other, 
eighty-four paces long and eight feet high, is a wall 
with eight recesses, resembling those of the Inca pal- 
ace at Lima-tambo, and, in the center of the lower 
wall, a mermaid or siren, much defaced by time, is 
carved in relief on a square slab. In one of the re- 
cesses a steep stone staircase leads up to a field of 
lucerne, on a level with the upper part of the wall, 
which is twelve feet high, and this forms a second ter- 
race. On either side of the field are ruins of the same 
character, traces of a very extensive building or range 

346 



PERU 

of buildings. They consist of a thick stone wall, six- 
teen paces long and ten feet six inches wide, contain- 
ing a door and windows. The masonry is most per- 
fect. The stones are cut in parallelograms, all of 
equal height but varying in length, with corners so 
sharp and fine that they appear as if they had just 
been cut — and without any kind of cement, fitting so 
exactly that the finest needle could not be introduced 
between them. The doorposts, of ample height, sup- 
port a stone lintel seven feet ten inches in length, 
while another stone, six feet long, forms the foot. 
. . . Behind these remains are three terraces, built 
in the rougher style of the masonry used in the 
first walls and planted in alders and fruit trees, 
. . . where he" (the first Inca, Manco Capac) "is 
said to have chosen the site of his residence, the 
more readily to overlook the building of his city and 
the labors of his disciples. . . . 

"On the east end of Sacsahuaman, crowning a 
steep cliff immediately above the palace of Manco 
Capac, there are three terraces, one above the other, 
built of a light-colored stone. The first wall, fourteen 
feet high, extends in a semicircular form around the 
hill for one hundred and eighty paces, and between the 
first and second terraces there is a space eight feet 
wide. The second wall is twelve feet high and the 
third is ninety paces around its whole extent. . . . 
This was the citadel of the fortress, and in its palmy 
days was crowned by three towers connected by 
subterranean passages, now quite demolished. . . . 
From the citadel to its eastern extremity the length of 
the table-land of Sacsahuaman is three hundred and 
fifty-three paces and its breadth in the broadest part 
one hundred and thirty paces. On the south side the 

347 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

position is so strong and impregnable that it required 
no artificial defense. The position is defended on 
part of its north side by a steep ravine through which 
flows the river Rodadero and which extends for one 
hundred and seventy-four paces from the citadel in 
a westerly direction. Here, therefore, the position re- 
quired only a single breastwork, which is still in a 
good state of preservation ; but from this point to the 
western extremity of the table-land, a distance of four 
hundred paces,- nature has left it entirely undefended, 
a small plain extending in front of it to the rocky 
heights of the Rodadero. 

"From this point, therefore, the Incas constructed 
a cyclopean line of fortifications, a work which fills the 
mind with astonishment at the grandeur of the con- 
ception and the perfect manner of its execution. It 
consists of three walls, the first averaging a height of 
eighteen feet, the second of sixteen and the third of 
fourteen, the first terrace being ten feet broad and the 
second eight. The walls are built with salient and re- 
tiring angles, twenty-one in number and correspond- 
ing with each other in each wall, so that no one point 
could be attacked without being commanded by others. 
. . . But the most marvelous part of this forti- 
fication is the huge masses of rock of which it is con- 
structed (one of them being sixteen feet in height and 
several more varying from ten to twelve feet), yet 
made to fit exactly one into the other and forming a 
piece of masonry almost unparalleled in solidity, 
beauty, and peculiarity of its construction in any 
other part of the world. The immense masses at 
Stonehenge, the great block in the tomb of Agamem- 
non at Argos, and those in the cyclopean walls of Vol- 
terra and Agrigentum are wonderful monuments of 

348 



PERU 

the perseverance and knowledge of the people who 
raised them, but they fall immeasurably short in 
beauty of execution of the fortress of Cuzco." 



The railroad and electric lights and the 
telegraph and telephone have come to Cuzco 
now, but in other respects the city is not 
much modernized. It is still distinctly remi- 
niscent of the royal Inca regime, and even 
more of the regime of the Spanish viceroys. 
For many years after the conquest it was 
superior in importance to Lima. Notaries 
were required under severe penalties, Mozans 
says, "to write at the head of all public 
documents, c En la gran ciudad del Cuzco, 
cabeza de estos reinos y provincias del Peru 
en las Indias 3 — In the great city of Cuzco, 
head of these kingdoms and provinces of 
Peru in the Indies. Even so late as the 
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries," he 
continues, "it was, next to Lima, the city 
of the greatest social importance in the vice- 
royalty." And so now, although there are 
the same long vistas of low, massive buildings 
through the narrow streets, the view from 
the hill presents a panorama of red-tiled roofs 
instead of thatches, of many tall church 

349 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

towers, and of a great square divided into 
three. 

On the first stories of the old Indian homes 
Spanish superstructures have been built; on 
the foundation walls of the ancient temple 
of Voricancha, the largest and richest of the 
sanctuaries devoted to the worship of the 
Sun, has been erected the convent of Santo 
Domingo; the devotees in the convent of 
Santa Catalina occupy cells that were once 
used by the Virgins of the Sun; walls that 
were retained in the building of the Church 
of San Lazaro are ornamented with bodies 
of birds having women's heads that were 
carved by the bronze chisels of the artisans 
of the Incas. The grand old renaissance 
cathedral, which, with its massive stone walls 
and pillars and vaulted roof, cost so much 
to build that one of the viceroys said it 
would have been cheaper to build it of silver, 
is one of the most imposing specimens of 
church architecture in America; the pulpit in 
San Bias is famed as one of the most beau- 
tiful in the world, and many of the interiors 
and cloisters, particularly of La Merced, 
where the remains of Almagro and two of 

350 




CHURCH OF LA MERCED, LIMA — TYPE OF RELIGIOUS ARCHITECTURE OF 
SPANISH COLONIAL PERIOD. 



PERU 

Pizarro's brothers lie, and the patio of the 
university, are perfectly superb. 

Of course, like La Paz, Quito, Bogota 
and many of the other old mountain cities, 
which until very recently were isolated so 
far as the outside world was concerned be- 
cause of their inaccessible locations, Cuzco is 
still behind the times in sanitary arrange- 
ments. Since there is surface drainage, there 
are odors, but one need have little fear of 
any ill effects in such a climate as theirs. 
Thanks to it, the cities are as healthful as 
most; and to the archaeologist and the lover 
of art and the beauties of nature in her sub- 
limest aspect, there is no more fascinating 
city in South America than Cuzco. 



351 



IX 



ECUADOR 



ECUADOR, "the Switzerland of Ameri- 
ca," is one of the smallest of our sister 
republics in the South, yet her area, 
of 116,000 square miles, is equal to that of 
our States of Missouri and Arkansas com- 
bined, and, if certain pending boundary dis- 
putes should be determined in her favor, her 
territory would be more than doubled. Her 
population is now about 1,500,000, an average 
of a little over twelve to the square mile. 

Politically, the republic is divided into 
sixteen provinces, not including the Gal- 
apagos Islands. Five are maritime, occupy- 
ing the strip of coast between the West- 
ern Cordillera and the sea, ten are inter- 
andine, and then there is the Oriente, so 
called, which consists of all the country em- 
braced in the slope between the Eastern 
Cordillera and the Brazilian frontier, in the 
valley of the Amazon. There are two fluvial 

352 



ECUADOR 

systems, both rising in the mountains; one 
flowing west to the sea and the other down 
the eastern slope. In all they are composed 
of ninety-one rivers. Those tributary to the 
Guayas, flowing westward to the sea, and 
many of which are of considerable size, are 
now of the greater commercial importance 
because the country of the Oriente, through 
which those tributary to the Amazon flow, 
is still a wilderness, only sparsely inhabited 
even by what are left of the aborigines — and 
this although it is the richest of all in vege- 
tation and fertility of soil, like the adjoining 
Montana district of Peru. 

Thus, ranging as it does from the sea-level 
of the coast on one side and the valley of the 
Amazon on the other to the high interandine 
plateau, and from thence to the great cloud- 
piercing peaks of the cordilleras, crowned 
with perpetual snow, this country directly 
beneath the Equator, from which it derives 
its very name, is possessed, as are Peru, Bo- 
livia, and Colombia, of every variety of climate 
within the sphere of a few hours' journey — in 
the lowlands, the eternal summer of the trop- 
ics; on the high table-lands, eternal spring, 
and, in the glacial regions of the mountain 

353 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

summits, winter without end. As the late Pro- 
fessor Orton so aptly put it: "As the Ecua- 
dorian sees all the constellations of the firma- 
ment, so nature surrounds him with represen- 
tatives of every family of plants. Tropical, 
temperate and arctic fruits and flowers are 
here found in profusion, or could be 
successfully cultivated. There are places 
where the eye can embrace an entire zone, for 
it may look up to a wheat or barley field or 
potato patch and down to the sugar cane 
and pineapple." 

And, in addition to the familiar products, 
in many places the slopes of the mountains 
between twelve and fifteen thousand feet are 
clothed with a shrub peculiar to the high 
altitudes of the Andes, called chuquiragua, 
the twigs of which are used for fuel and the 
yellow buds as a febrifuge. In the valleys 
between the cordilleras a very useful and val- 
uable, as well as the most ordinary, plant is 
the American aloe, or century plant, which 
under cultivation, however, blooms oftener 
than once in a hundred years. It is the lar- 
gest of all the herbs, and, with its tall stem 
rising from a cluster of .long, thick, grace- 
fully curved leaves, looks like a great 

354- 



ECUADOR 

chandelier. Most of the roads are fenced 
with hedges of them. Nearly every part is 
said to serve some practical purpose. The 
broad leaves are used for thatching huts and 
by the poorer classes as a substitute for paper 
in writing; a sirup flows from them when 
tapped; as they contain much alkali, a soap 
that lathers in salt water as well as fresh is 
manufactured from them; the fiber of the 
leaves and roots is woven into sandals and 
sacks; the flowers make excellent pickles, the 
stock is used in building, the pith of the stem 
is used by barbers for sharpening razors and 
the spines as needles. A species of yucca, 
resembling the aloe, yields the hemp of Ecua- 
dor. 

In the lowlands, cacao and sugar cane, cof- 
fee, tobacco, rice, cotton, and bananas and 
other tropical fruits are grown. The forests 
contain rubber and numerous species of use- 
ful trees, among them the tree that yields 
what is known as the taque nut, or vegetable 
ivory, from which buttons are made, the 
grasses and toquilla palm used in the manu- 
facture of the coarser grades of Panama 
hats, the chincona from the bark of which 
quinine is obtained, the mangrove cultivated 

355 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

for tanning purposes as well as its fruit, 
and the silk-cotton tree that yields the val- 
uable commercial product known as kapok. 
A considerable portion of the Oriente is 
verdured with a part of that immense forest 
which extends in an unbroken mass from the 
grassy llanos of Venezuela to the pampas of 
Argentina. In other sections of the country 
are gold, silver, copper, iron, coal, petroleum, 
asphalt and other minerals, though since the 
colonial regime there has been little activity 
in mining. Only a few years ago work was 
resumed in the famous mines of Zaruma, 
formerly the source of much revenue to the 
Spaniards. 

Ecuador has a treasury of wealth in her 
vast cacao groves. The cacao tree, which 
grows wild in the forests, is from sixteen to 
forty feet high and bears a fruit in which the 
beans lie buried in a cucumber-shaped pod 
five to ten inches long and three or four inches 
thick. The bean itself in its raw state re- 
sembles a thick almond. When ripe, the pods 
are cut from the tree by means of a knife with 
a curved blade, set on the end of a long pole, 
an implement specially designed to remove 
them without injury. The pods are then 

356 



ECUADOR 

gathered in heaps and left on the ground to 
dry for a day or two before the beans are 
removed and cured. From cacao comes cocoa. 
The name "cacao" signifies the raw, and 
"cocoa" the finished product. There is still 
another name — coca — which is often con- 
fused with these, but coca is nothing like 
cacao. Coca is the Peruvian plant from the 
leaves of which cocaine is extracted. The 
cacao bean contains the cocoa we drink at our 
breakfast tables, and our chocolate. 

On the skill employed in the curing, 
which is an extremely delicate process, to 
a great extent depends the quality of the 
output and its flavor and color. When ready 
for the market, the bean is dark red outside 
and chocolate tinted within. Analyses show 
that it is rich in fats, albuminoids, caffeine 
and theobromine, which last is what imparts 
to it its principal characteristics. What we 
know as chocolate differs from cocoa in that, 
in the former compound, the cocoa butter 
is not extracted; from the latter it is. 
Cocoa is really a factory product. The cured 
bean is treated differently in the various 
countries to suit the taste of the public, and 
chocolate also is prepared in different ways 

357 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

for the various uses. American and French 
chocolates are sold all over the world. 

The tobacco grown in the Province of Es- 
meraldas on the coast is claimed to be com- 
parable with that produced in Cuba. And 
this reminds me that, unless tradition is at 
fault, the town of Atacames, from around 
which some of the best of it comes, has quite 
a unique history of its own. In 1623, so the 
story goes, a vessel laden with seven hundred 
African slaves was on its way from Panama 
to Peru, where they were to be worked in 
the mines. When near the mouth of the 
Esmeralda River, they mutinied, massacred 
the officers and sailors of the ship, and, land- 
ing at Atacames, took possession of the town 
and killed or drove away every man in the 
neighborhood, Indian or Spanish, but spared 
the women, whom they kept as wives. After- 
ward, however, instead of indulging in further 
depredations, they kept within the territory 
they had conquered, and, mixing with the 
Cayapas, who had attained an unusual state 
of civilization for lowland Indians before the 
invasion, became miners and agriculturists on 
their own account. These African mutineers, 
therefore, protected by the reputation for 

358 



ECUADOR 

ferocity they had acquired in their stroke for 
freedom, were thus the founders of what 
afterward became an intelligent and indus- 
trious community. The women, particularly, 
are famous for their skill in making Panama 
hats. 

Indeed, aside from agriculture, the most 
important industry in all the coast provinces 
is the making of these hats. Guayaquil long 
since supplanted Panama as the principal 
market for them. Those of the finest texture, 
the ones that are so soft and delicately woven 
that they can be folded and put in a coat 
pocket like a handkerchief and will last a 
lifetime, are made of a peculiar grass called 
jipi-japa, for which the town in the Province 
of Manavi is named, and, in the weaving of 
them, considerable time and great skill is 
required. These we seldom, if ever, see in 
this country. Many go to Paris, Italy, and 
Spain; more are taken by the planters along 
the coast, and in Cuba, who are willing to 
pay as much as $80 to $100 for them. They 
are woven by the women by hand, and only 
in the moonlight, these best grades, because 
the sun would harden the material, artificial 
light would attract insects, and the dampness 

359 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

that comes with sunset is necessary to give 
the flexibility so essential to their beauty. 
The coarser grades, such as we see here, 
are woven in the daytime, but under water, 
in tubs. 

Guayaquil, a city of about 50,000 inhabi- 
tants, is Ecuador's principal seaport, and, 
next to Valparaiso and Callao, the busiest 
and most important on the Pacific side of 
the continent. All the way up from Callao 
the steamer hugs the shore as closely as safety 
will permit. There is little change in the 
view. The same arid strip of low-lying coast 
land, dotted with rocky promontories, fringed 
here and there with cliffs and crossed with 
occasional stretches of green where the rivers 
flow through to the sea, continues day after 
day — the same background of mountains ris- 
ing tier on tier for thousands and thousands 
of feet, in the morning partly obscured by 
heavy banks of clouds that later melt away 
and leave the rugged contour sharply silhou- 
etted against the bright blue, are bathed in 
the evening, as the sun sinks toward the 
horizon, in the purple haze that becomes them 
best. Yet there are also the same calm sea 
and rainless sky and the same cool, aromatic 

360 



ECUADOR 

breezes that make the lazy hours on deck a 
continual delight. 

And so it is with mixed feelings of regret 
and relief that one enters the Gulf of Guaya- 
quil — relief, for here, as we steam past the 
island of Puna, where Pizarro camped for 
months awaiting reinforcements before begin- 
ning the conquest of Peru, the aspect of the 
shore line changes and we see foliage as fresh 
and green and as wildly luxuriant as any in 
the basins of the interior. Passing the island, 
we come to the mouth of the Guayas, the 
greatest of South American rivers emptying 
into the Pacific. The city is sixty miles 
beyond at the head of the estuary. The first 
glimpse we catch is of a street, called El 
Malecon, that extends along the water front 
for two miles or more from a shipyard to a 
hill crowned by a fortress. This is at once 
the principal shopping, cafe, and amusement 
place, the favorite promenade, the warehouse 
district, and the quay where the lighters that 
ply between it and the vessels anchored out 
in the river take on and unload their cargoes. 
It is faced with what from the deck appear 
to be long rows of white stone and marble 
buildings of beautiful and graceful archi- 

361 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

tectural design, for the most part of the usual 
Moorish type. Long series of arcades in 
front of the shops remind one of those of 
the Rue de Rivoli in Paris; above are pretty 
balconies sheltered by blinds and awnings 
of gaily colored canvas, screening groups of 
ladies who like to sit in them and watch the 
lively scene below as they sip their coffee and 
chat. 

But picturesque as it all is, one finds on 
going ashore, that the walls of these imposing- 
looking edifices are merely shells of split 
bamboo, plastered with cement, ornamented 
with stucco and painted to resemble marble 
and stone, which sad experience has taught 
the people of the city will not resist earth- 
quakes as well as this more elastic imita- 
tion they have been compelled to substitute. 
The residences of the well-to-do are con- 
structed of the same materials and with wide 
verandas from ground to roof, enclosed with 
Venetian blinds. Few are elaborately fur- 
nished. In that climate it is thought better, 
for the sake of spaciousness and comfort, to 
forego evidences of wealth in the form of 
carpets, hangings, and upholstery, which keep 
out air and retain the heat. The poor of the 

362 





" : 



STREET SCENE IN GUAYAQUIL. 




CONDOR OF THE ANDES. 



ECUADOR 

suburbs have thatched bamboo or adobe huts 
with floors of hardened earth. As in Canton, 
China, many of them live on the water on 
rafts made from balsa, a species of timber 
nearly as buoyant as cork, or else of hollow 
trunks of bamboo. A number of logs, forty 
or fifty feet long, are lashed together in 
such a way that they can be propelled by 
either oars or sails, and a bamboo hut is 
built in the center. These often serve as the 
homes of whole families for generations, and 
are so substantial that they are used in the 
coasting as well as the river trade for bring- 
ing produce to market. 

In June, 1908, a long-desired and much 
needed railroad was completed between Guay- 
aquil and the capital, Quito, way up in the 
interandine table-land, 9350 feet above the 
level of the sea, and now the trip of nearly 
three hundred miles, that formerly took from 
twelve to fifteen days on mule-back, and often 
more by foot, may be made in two days, in 
a comfortably equipped passenger train. The 
scenery en route is gorgeous. The train 
speeds through forests of stately trees like 
those of the Amazon — walnut, mahogany, 
rubber, cacao, cottonwood, with vines en- 

363 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

twined around their trunks and hanging from 
their branches, and beds of mosses and ferns 
at their feet, slender bamboos shooting up 
straight as an arrow, and tall, graceful palms, 
tipped with feathery tufts — the whole mass 
aglow with scarlet passion flowers and or- 
chids, and blossoms of every hue. Then come 
broad fields covered with prickly pineapple 
plants, sugar cane, coffee and snowy cotton 
plantations and groves of cocoanut palms, 
oranges, lemons, and limes saturating the air 
with their delicious fragrance, splendid mango 
trees with their golden fruit and dense foliage 
that makes them the best of all shade trees in 
the tropics, and groves of banana trees, toss- 
ing out glossy green leaves eight feet long 
from their sheathlike stalks, and many bear- 
ing bunches of this bread of the poor and 
delicacy of the rich that weigh from sixty 
to seventy pounds. Von Humboldt calcu- 
lated that "thirty- three pounds of wheat and 
ninety-nine pounds of potatoes require as 
much space of ground as will produce four 
thousand pounds of bananas." They bear fruit 
but once and die, but the roots are perennial 
and every year bring forth new plants. 
Then, when the traveler has crossed the 
364 



ECUADOR 

coast strip, he comes to the foothills and be- 
gins the steep, tortuous ascent. On either 
side of this highland but ever green series of 
plateaux, crossed by nudos and ascending like 
steps to the one in which the capital lies, 
tower mountains, the crests of forty-two of 
which are more than ten thousand feet high. 
Twenty of them are higher than Pike's Peak 
in Colorado; fourteen are higher than the 
Alpine giant, Mont Blanc. It was in this 
vast, magnificent "Avenue of Volcanoes" that 
the celebrated artist, Frederick E. Church, 
painted his wonderful picture, "The Heart of 
the Andes." Here, he declared, is the grand- 
est mountain scenery in the world. 

The most majestic of them all is snow- 
covered Chimborazo, near the center of the 
Western Cordillera, and fortunately almost 
constantly in view, for it is along its spurs 
that the road between Guayaquil and Quito 
ascends. One would not imagine its summit 
so very hard to reach, as it appears from the 
mountain pass at an elevation of fourteen 
thousand feet; yet many explorers, from Von 
Humboldt down, strove for the honor, only 
to fail until Edward Whymper, an English- 
man, finally achieved it in 1879. For years, 

365 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

with its known altitude of 21,420 feet, it was 
famed as the highest point in America; now 
the mighty Aconcagua in Argentina, which 
is recorded at the Harvard Observatory at 
Arequipa as measuring 24,760 feet, has been 
awarded the palm. It is from shipboard on 
the Pacific, though, on a clear day, rather 
than from the plateau, that Chimborazo is 
to be seen in all the majesty of its complete 
proportions, particularly when the evening 
shadow's mellowing tint creeps upward to 
the summit — a vision of gold, vermilion, pur- 
ple, followed by the glory of the brief tropical 
sunset — in the few minutes before darkness 
covers the earth and "the haste of stars, 
trembling with excess of light, bursts sud- 
denly into view over the peaks," when the 
waters of the sea become so impregnated with 
phosphorescent flashes that each wave seems 
tipped with silver and the foam that follows 
in the vessel's wake is like a stream of fire. 

Conspicuous among the crests of the east- 
ern range are Tunguragua, with its perfect 
cone and great cataract tumbling down fif- 
teen hundred feet from the snow line to the 
valley beneath; fierce, Plutonic Sangai, the 
most active volcano in the world; and the 

366 



ECUADOR 

beautiful Altar, as it was called by the Span- 
iards, which is said to have been higher than 
Chimborazo a few years before the Conquest, 
but has since collapsed. Now its summit pre- 
sents the appearance of a superb crown, 
pointed with eight jagged peaks; its snowy 
mantle is relieved by rents or fissures in the 
rock that seem to be colored dark blue in con- 
trast with the white. 

And then there is the still more superb 
Cotopaxi, 19,613 feet, without a rival in 
height or symmetry among the active vol- 
canoes of the old world. Some faint 
idea of its grandeur may be conceived by those 
who have seen Vesuvius, for instance, when 
it is realized that it is more than fifteen 
thousand feet — nearly three miles — higher, 
and that, when in eruption, it vomits forth its 
fires, with ominous rumblings that can be 
heard for a hundred miles, from a cone which 
itself is higher than Vesuvius. Mr. Whym- 
per, who also succeeded here in making the 
perilous ascent where Von Humboldt and 
others had failed, described the crater as an 
enormous amphitheater with a rugged crest 
surrounded by overhanging cliffs, some snow- 
clad, others encrusted with sulphur. 

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THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

"Cavernous recesses," he says, "belched 
forth smoke; the sides of the cracks and 
chasms shone with ruddy light. At the 
bottom, probably twelve thousand feet below 
us, there was a ruddy circular spot about 
one- tenth the diameter of the crater; it was 
the pipe of the volcano, its channel of com- 
munication with the lower regions, and was 
filled with incandescent if not molten lava, 
glowing and burning, lighted by tongues of 
flame that issued from cracks in the sur- 
rounding slopes." On the side of the moun- 
tain is a huge rock called the "Inca's Head." 
Tradition has it that this was the original 
summit, hurled down by an eruption on the 
very day that Pizarro caused Atahualpa to be 
strangled. The great eruption of 1859 was 
succeeded by an earthquake that wrought ter- 
rible destruction and loss of life, and by a 
tidal wave, which in its devastating course 
carried a United States warship a mile inland, 
over the roofs of the houses of a town on 
the coast of Peru and left it high and dry 
on a sandy plain. Just now the volcano is 
in a state of "solemn and thoughtful sus- 
pense"; only thin clouds of smoke escape 
from its crater. 

368 



ECUADOR 

At the base of Pichincha, the crater of 
which the astronomer, La Condamine, likened 
to the "chaos of the poets," and Orton de- 
scribes as "a frightful abyss nearly a mile 
in width and a half mile deep from which a 
cloud of sulphurous vapors comes rolling up," 
lies the city of Quito. Its origin is shrouded 
in mystery, but we know that at the time of 
the Conquest it was the northern stronghold 
of the great Inca empire, and the place where 
Atahualpa resided. On this lofty site, which 
in the Alps would be buried in an avalanche 
of snow, but in the tropics enjoys an eternal 
spring, palaces more beautiful than the 
Alhambra are said to have been built, glit- 
tering with the gold and emeralds of the 
region. But all this passed away with the 
scepter of Atahualpa. Where the pavilion 
of the Inca stood is now a gloomy convent; 
a wheat field takes the place of the Temple 
of the Sun. Even the Spanish structures 
that supplanted the original ones seem dilap- 
idated enough. The population is said to 
number about sixty-five thousand, but there 
is little of the modern and still less in the way 
of opportunity for amusement, though it is 
all most interesting simply because it is so old 

369 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

and because there is much of romance in its 
history. 

The train emerges from the pass on to the 
plain of Riobamba, the scene of many notable 
events in the history of the country. Here 
it was that the great Inca conqueror Tupac 
Yupanqui routed the Shiri of the Caras and 
began the conquest of his possessions; it was 
here that Atahualpa's great general, Quiz- 
quiz, defeated the army of the Inca Huascar 
and proceeded to the invasion of Peru ; it was 
here that the daring Conquistador Sebastian 
de Benalcazar defeated the victors and 
brought the Kingdom of Quito under the sway 
of Pizarro. The city of Riobamba, which is 
the first of importance on the line, is also said 
to have been the birthplace of the eminent his- 
torian Juan de Velasco and several others of 
South America's most distinguished sons. It 
has a population of only twelve or fifteen 
thousand, but, thanks to the demand created 
by commercial travelers and the employees 
of the railroad, it serves as an excellent rest- 
ing place, for there are two or three very 
tolerable hotels. From this point on to Quito, 
there are parts of the plain that are arid 
and desolate. This is attributed partly to 

370 



ECUADOR 

the fact that so much of the country was 
long ago denuded of its trees and partly to 
volcanic eruptions of a peculiar kind. 
Describing one of them, Mozans says: 

"But, destructive as are the eruptions of the vol- 
cano when it belches forth ashes, cinders, and lava, 
it is even more so when its terrific operations are 
followed by deluges of water and avalanches of mud, 
carrying along with them immense blocks of ice and 
rock to great distances, causing death and devasta- 
tion all along their course. Such an eruption took 
place in 1877, and, so great was the velocity of the 
angry flood, that it swept the plain with the momen- 
tum of an express train, carrying before it bridges, 
buildings, and everything that stood in its path. The 
very day of the eruption the irresistible torrent 
reached the mouth of the Esmeralda River, nearly 
three hundred miles distant. The catastrophe had 
been announced the preceding evening by an enor- 
mous column of black ashes, which the roaring moun- 
tain projected more than three miles above the crater, 
and which an east wind carried far out over the 
Pacific. Vessels going from Guayaquil to Panama 
were suddenly enveloped in a cloud of dust and 
transmitted to Europe and the United States the first 
news of the disaster. After this eruption of ash, there 
was a welling of molten lava over the rim of the 
crater which melted the ice and snow and transformed 
them at once into tremendous avalanches of mud. At 
the same time immense blocks of ice were transported 
across the plain of Latacunga to a distance of thirty 
miles, where they remained several months before they 

371 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

were entirely melted. The foregoing is only one of 
many similar eruptions that occurred during the last 
century." 

"But why, it will be asked, do people live 
in a land in which they are constantly ex- 
posed to such sudden and awful disasters?" 
he continues — "where thousands of victims 
are sacrificed in a single moment? Why do 
people cling around the rich flanks of Kilauea 
and Mauna Loa and huddle around the 
treacherous slopes of vine-clad Etna and 
Vesuvius, or pitch their tents on quaking, 
incandescent Stromboli? Let philosophers 
reply." But, in the neighborhood of Quito 
itself no more of these arid stretches are to be 
seen. "Notwithstanding the ever-menacing 
volcano towering above it, Quito," he tells us, 
"was always to the Ecuadorian of the interior 
one of the world's most favored cities. It was 
what Damascus and Bagdad in their halcyon 
days were to the Arabs, what Cordova and 
Granada were to the Moors. It was 'Quito 
bonito' — charming Quito — the city above the 
clouds, 'the navel of the world, the home of the 
continua primavera — perpetual spring — ever- 
green, magnificent Quito.' It was like 
Heaven — Como de Cielo — where there is 

372 



ECUADOR 

neither heat nor cold. It was the Paradise of 
delights. Had Columbus discovered the 
beautiful valley which it overlooks, he would, 
we are assured, have pronounced it the site 
of the Garden of Eden." 

After Lima and Santiago, the suburbs 
strike one as rather squalid and dilapidated. 
In the city proper, however, the houses im- 
prove in size and finish and continue to 
improve until the Grand Plaza is reached in 
the center. The more pretentious are of 
two stories, a few three, and of massive con- 
struction, with adobe walls two or three feet 
thick and tiled roofs, and are built around a 
square courtyard, or patio, in the old Spanish 
style, often with a fountain or flower plot in 
the center. Here, too, around the patios are 
pillared arches supporting galleries used as the 
passage way to rooms in the upper tier; the 
floors are paved with large, square, red bricks. 
The public buildings, some of them dating 
back to Philip II, are clustered about the 
three plazas. The most imposing, the capitol, 
a low building adorned with a splendid col- 
onnade, faces the Grand Plaza. With its 
long rpws of columns it looks a little like the 
Fifteenth Street side of the Treasury Build- 

373 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

ing in Washington. To the right of it is an 
ancient but beautiful cathedral; on the other 
side is the palace of the Papal Nuncio. All 
are fine specimens of the architecture of the 
periods in which they were built. 

The scene in the shopping district and 
around the market has quite an Egyptian 
flavor. The shops are very small and ex- 
posed; groups in gay ponchos stand chatting 
and smoking in front of them or lean idly 
against the walls, enjoying the sunlight; 
soldiers saunter to and fro; Indians, in every 
variety of costume, are scattered about guard- 
ing heaps of vegetables they have brought 
in from the surrounding country for sale; 
bronze-complexioned women in many-colored 
gowns peddle oranges and alligator pears 
from baskets carried on their heads; pur- 
chasers, mostly men and in more conventional 
attire, wander from store to store, for it is 
not here so much as in the vicinity of the 
churches that one is favored with a glimpse 
of the ladies of the upper class. They do 
little shopping themselves, these senoras and 
senoritas, yet they are very devout, and it is 
their custom to wrap themselves in their black 
mantillas and attend mass every day. 

374 



COLOMBIA 

JOURNEYING overland into Colombia 
from Ecuador, there opens before the 
traveler the vast mountainous country 
that was once the ancient kingdom of the 
Chibchas — the contemporary of the Inca em- 
pire, and, later the pivotal state of Bolivar's 
great confederation. Colombia occupies the 
extreme northwestern corner of the continent. 
With its 465,714 square miles of territory, it 
is as large as Texas, Kansas, Arkansas and 
Louisiana, and has a population of 4,320,000. 
In this corner of the continent the Andes 
come to an end in a great splurge of deep- 
cut ridges presenting an aspect very different 
from the formations to the south. Here three 
clearly defined ranges diverge from the Ecua- 
dorian frontier and spread northward like the 
ribs of a fan; the Western and Central Cor- 
dilleras merge before reaching the Caribbean 
Sea, and slope off into foothills and plains near 

375 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

the coast, and the Eastern Cordillera con- 
tinues in an almost unbroken line until, as 
the Sierra de Pari j a, it plunges into the sea 
at the end of the bleak, forbidding peninsula 
(Goajira) west of the Gulf of Maracaibo. 
Rising from the Pacific, on the west, is an 
almost entirely distinct range, separated from 
the Andean terminals by the great basin of 
the Atrato River, and running along the 
Isthmus of Panama into Central America. 
Just north of the Ecuadorian frontier lies 
the so-called "Massif" from which branch off 
the three Cordilleras just mentioned and in 
which the four important Colombian river 
systems have their source; the Patia flowing 
westward to the Pacific; the Caqueta, east- 
ward, through the Amazon, into the Atlantic, 
and the Cauca and Magdalena, the great high- 
ways of the country, flowing northward to the 
Caribbean on either side of the Central Cor- 
dillera, and joining their floods about one hun- 
dred and fifty miles from the sea in the hot, 
marshy plains of the Magdalena basin. 

The Eastern Cordillera slopes off into the 
Orinoco and Amazon plains — over a terri- 
tory constituting two-thirds of the republic's 
area — and thus gives to Colombia the same 

376 



COLOMBIA 

astonishing range of productiveness that dis- 
tinguishes her southern neighbors along the 
Andean chain. Gold is scattered literally all 
over the Andean ridges and is picked up 
along the streams that flow into the lower 
levels. Silver, iron and lead are almost as 
universally present; the platinum deposits 
are surpassed only in Russia; the emerald 
mines of Muzo, seventy-five miles from Bo- 
gota, have been famous ever since the bril- 
liant stones were torn from the turban crowns 
of the Indian kings by the Conquistadores, 
and are the principal source of the world's 
supply; the salt mines and pearl fisheries add 
largely to the republic's revenue. 

The Review Number of the Pan American 
Bulletin (August, 1911) says of the emerald 
industry : 

"All, or very nearly all, the emeralds mined to-day 
come from Colombia. And, in spite of the supposed 
higher value of diamonds, the emerald is the most 
precious of gems. Carat for carat, a flawless emerald 
would bring perhaps three times the price of a flaw- 
less diamond in the jewelry market. India, the store- 
house of precious stones, is credited with producing 
the first emeralds, but the oriental emerald is not 
identical with the modern gem, as it is a variety of 
the ruby, of a green color, and extremely rare. The 

377 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

stone that adorned Aaron's armor, described in the 
writings of Moses, if it was a real emerald and not a 
carbuncle, may have come from the mines of Coptos 
in Egypt, which furnished the ancients with the 
precious green gems. Certain of these old mines are 
known as 'Cleopatra's Mines,' because that remark- 
able Egyptian queen is supposed to have obtained her 
jewels from that source. Nero wore an emerald mon- 
ocle at the gladiatorial combats that came perhaps 
from the mines of Ethiopia. The Museum of Naples 
contains fine emeralds taken from the ruins of Pom- 
peii and Herculaneum, some of which are carved, and 
the history of this gem shows that it was highly 
treasured from the earliest recorded times. . . . 

"Mexico, Peru, and Ecuador were ravished of their 
mineral wealth ; so wonderful emeralds, as part of the 
spoil, found their way into the treasury of the Spanish 
kings. Pizarro and Cortes sent the first emeralds 
from the New World to Spain, where they acquired 
the name 'Spanish emeralds.' Tradition has it that 
an Aztec gem appropriated by Cortes was valued 
at forty thousand ducats. Another wonderful stone, 
the size of an ostrich egg, was found in the Manka 
Valley, Peru, where the Indians worshiped it as the 
Goddess of Emeralds. The Spanish conquerors 
opened up the mines in Colombia in 1540, enslaving 
the Indians to work them. The richest mineral areas 
were those of Muzo and Cosquez, about 75 miles north 
of Bogota, at an elevation of about 6500 feet above 
sea-level. A curious fact in the history of these latter 
mines is that they were closed and lost to the world 
in an enveloping forest of jungle for over a hundred 
years, and only rediscovered some fourteen years ago. 
The Government of Colombia controls the exploita- 

378 



COLOMBIA 

tion, leasing the mining districts to the working com- 
panies. 

"The Muzo group, from which the finest emeralds 
come, has an estimated yearly output of 262,548 
carats of the first class, 467,690 of the second, 22,700 
of the third, and 16,000 of the fourth class. The 
Coscuez group, named for an Indian princess, which 
produced a variety of emerald called canutillo, one of 
the most valuable stones, is now in the category of 
lost mines. The Samandoco or Chivor group, not 
now being worked, is supposed to possess a matrix 
that would yield half a million dollars worth of em- 
eralds a year. ... It was" (in the Muzo group) 
"that the most valuable single emerald in the world 
was found. It belongs to the Duke of Devonshire 
and is a perfect, six-sided crystal that weighs 8 
ounces 18 pennyweights, is two inches in length and 
measures across its three thicknesses 2^2 » 2^, and 
1% inches. Another fine stone is the Hope emerald, 
weighing 6 ounces, which was also found in Colombia. 
There can be no doubt that this source of wealth will 
be greatly augmented in the future, when improved 
transportation facilities shall make it possible." 

A wealth of agricultural products, typical 
of nearly every clime, lies in the great river 
basins and on the eastern slopes and plains in 
the Orinoco and Amazon regions. In the 
river basins and part of the way up the moun- 
tain sides are great forests, so dense as to 
be almost impenetrable, but abounding in 
nearly every species of cabinet and dye woods 

379 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

and nearly every medicinal plant known to 
science. In altitudes of from two to four 
thousand feet the coffee plant thrives ; the ber- 
ries from the celebrated Chimbi estates are 
said to produce the most delicately flavored 
coffee in the world. But little of it ever 
reaches the United States. In the tierras 
calientes, or "hot lands," the fragrant tonka 
beans, that have the sweet odor of new-mown 
hay and are used in some blends of tobacco 
to give it a bouquet and in the manufacture of 
soaps and perfumes, and cacao, bananas, yuc- 
cas, arracha, sugar, indigo, tobacco, vanilla 
and rice are among the staple products. The 
soil of this region is of a rich, black, deep-lying 
loam, well watered and capable of a greater 
productiveness than the plains of Louisiana or 
Texas. In the intermediate areas the culture 
includes wheat, barley, oats, potatoes and 
other cereals and vegetables common to the 
temperate zone. Along the Sinu River is a 
great cattle belt. This is also the source of 
the cedar and mahogany, of which Colombia 
is one of the chief exporters. 

It follows naturally that, as in Ecuador, 
the diversity in altitude that accounts for 
this varied productiveness gives to Colombia 

380 



COLOMBIA 

— a wholly tropical country — a range in cli- 
mate that makes it one of the world's most 
attractive abiding places. Von Humboldt is 
quoted as saying that the traveler here needs 
but "a thermometer and a mule to find any 
climate desired within the compass of a few 
leagues." When one tires of the torrid heat 
of the valleys, the frozen sierras are just in 
sight. When the perpetual spring of the 
table-land palls upon him, he can by a few 
hours' ride find autumn on the steppes above 
or summer in the plains below. If he is a 
sportsman, he can find his game among many 
species of the fauna of three zones: the jaguar, 
sloth, armadillo, tapir, the red deer, black 
bear, and panther, and in the jungles of the 
Amazon region, the tiger. 

The overland route to Bogota from Quito 
lies over a well-built highway which, in the 
not distant future, will be paralleled by 
Colombia's and Ecuador's contributions to 
the long-heralded Pan-American railway 
from New York to Buenos Aires. Up to the 
present time Colombia has had but six hun- 
dred miles of railways: the little system 
radiating from the capital and connecting it 
with the Magdalena River, and, through that 

381 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

natural highway, with the Caribbean ports, 
and the short lines that run inland from the 
ports of both oceans; for Colombia is the 
only country in South America that borders 
on both the Pacific and the Atlantic. 

The traveler who enters the country in the 
saddle over the route mentioned will profit 
more than by sailing up the Pacific coast 
from Guayaquil and entering through the 
port of Buenaventura. The journey along 
the lofty heights and down through the lovely 
green valleys will not only give him much 
more of the inspiring Andean scenery, but will 
make him acquainted with the country and 
village life which he could not see at close 
range otherwise. But he will have to sacri- 
fice many familiar comforts on the altar of 
education. The posadas, or village inns, at 
which he must stop are mere adobe huts with 
dirt floors, and none but rawhide cots are 
offered for his rest. The few dishes served at 
these primitive hostelries are plentifully sea- 
soned with garlic, saffron, and morones, or 
red peppers. The early hours of the journey 
will bring the traveler in conflict also with the 
all-pervading philosophy of manana (to-mor- 
row), and his progress will be slow. How- 

382 



COLOMBIA 

ever, the unfailing good humor of his mule- 
teer will do much to dispel his exasperation at 
delays, and he will find himself more and 
more repaid for his discomforts by the splen- 
dor and beauty and strangeness through 
which he is making his way. 

Passing over the bleak, frozen paramos, or 
mountain deserts, wrapped in awful stillness 
by the great peaks rising above them, the 
scene suddenly changes as the road descends 
along the heavily wooded slopes and the 
country becomes alive with verdure and the 
sounds of birds. Below, in a still more sum- 
mery clime, lies, perhaps, a beautiful little 
lozenge-shaped valley fringed about up the 
sides of the mountains with coffee plantations 
and groves of bamboo, or some other scene 
even more picturesque — and then, over equally 
sudden changes and different pictures of na- 
tive life, the traveler goes on until there begin 
to appear extensive plantations with well 
built houses and farm machinery, and, finally 
reaches the railway, which takes him, not un- 
regretfully, from his guide and carries him up 
into the lofty sabana — the great altaplain on 
which Bogota, the capital, is located. This 
plateau is a level plain, about seventy miles 

383 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

long by about thirty in width, containing 
some two thousand square miles of cleared, 
arable land. It lies 8700 feet above the sea in 
the very heart of the Eastern Cordillera, just 
below the fifth degree of north latitude, and 
ranges in temperature from fifty-nine to 
sixty-five degrees Fahrenheit the year around. 
From this plateau the descendants of the 
Spanish conquerors have administered the 
country since 1538. The sabana is now cov- 
ered with prosperous plantations belonging to 
rich Bogotanos. 

Bogota lies on the eastern border. When 
Quesada, its founder, set foot on the sabana, 
he was struck by its resemblance to the broad 
plain of Santa Fe, in his native Granada, 
on which the armies of Ferdinand and Isa- 
bella encamped during the siege that was to 
put an end to the power of the Moors in 
Spain. He therefore called the new capital 
Santa Fe de Bogota, and New Granada be- 
came the name of the northern viceroyalty 
which was carved out of the Viceroyalty of 
Peru in 1717. Both names have disappeared. 
The capital has reverted to its ancient Indian 
name of Bogota, and the name of Granada, 
perpetuated until 1861 in the name of the 

384 



COLOMBIA 

Republic of New Granada, was succeeded in 
that year by that of the present Republic of 
Colombia. 

The site of the present city, some twelve 
miles southeast of the ancient Chibcha capital, 
was the location of the little Indian village of 
Tensaquilla, the pleasure resort of the Zipas, 
nestling, like the Spanish city of Granada, 
at the foot of two mountains — Monserrate 
and Guadelupe. Down these mountains 
tumble the little streams that make up the 
near-by Funza River, which spreads out over 
the plain and then plunges down into the 
upper waters of the Magdalena. On the 
far side of this great river runs the Central 
Cordillera, some ninety miles west of the 
capital, and on clear days the giant white- 
topped volcano, Tolima, 18,400 feet high, and 
the Mesa de Herveo, but sixty feet lower — 
constituting the culminating points in Co- 
lombia — are plainly visible. 

The traveler's first impressions of Bogota 
are those of surprise and admiration — sur- 
prise at rinding so large a city (150,000 in 
population) perched high up in the Andes, 
fully "six hundred miles from anywhere;" 
and admiration of the surpassing natural 

385 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

beauty of its locality. His next impression 
is that it is one of the most conservative, quiet 
and restful places on earth — conditions 
greatly to be appreciated after his long, 
eventful journey. The discovery is soon 
made that Bogota possesses a climate that 
is simply perfect, and a highly educated and 
accomplished society, that boasts for the 
capital the appellation of "the Boston of 
South America." Like Quito, Bogota is old, 
and being so far inland and inaccessible, its 
Tibet-like seclusion for centuries has bred 
within its higher circles an aristocratic caste, 
somewhat arrogant but always suave, kindly, 
and hospitable. In this eddied fragment of 
the old-world Spain, the old ceremonious 
forms of address — "Your servant who kisses 
your hand," and that hospitable assurance, 
"Aqui tiene su casa" with which even the 
chance acquaintance is made to feel at home, 
as in his "own house"— do not seem incon- 
gruous, as they would in Spanish cities in 
closer contact with the outer world. 

The streets of the city run eastward up the 
slopes of a wide avenue cut along the sides 
of the mountain, and are crossed at right an- 
gles by others running north and south. The 

386 




OVERLOOKING BOGOTA. 



COLOMBIA 

blocks thus formed rise one above another 
like the benches of a great amphitheater, over- 
shadowed by the peaks of Monserrate and 
Guadelupe. On the crests of these peaks 
stand two massive cathedrals. One wonders 
why great temples were built in such inac- 
cessible locations, and why, with over thirty 
more cathedrals and churches in the city, they 
were needed at all. They can be reached only 
by pedestrians, and then only after some 
three hours of hard climbing; no one ever 
lived near them, and the bleak, icy paramo 
beyond is uninhabitable. Like the cross, how- 
ever, their presence is objectively effective 
in this very religious community. 

The city is now well lighted by gas and 
electricity and is beautified by three large 
plazas and many smaller parks, in nearly all 
of which the Bogotanos have erected hand- 
some bronze statues to the soldiers and states- 
men of the republic. The great central plaza 
bears the name of Bolivar, and on a high 
pedestal in its center stands a bronze figure 
of the Great Liberator, his sad, thoughtful 
face turned as if in mute reproach toward the 
old executive mansion, where, for a brief 
reign, he ruled the destinies of Colombia, 

387 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

Venezuela, and Ecuador, then united in his 
ill-starred Colombian confederation. From 
a window in that mansion he once leaped, at 
midnight, to escape the hand of an assassin, 
raised against him because the people dis- 
trusted his rule and permitted themselves to 
forget his inestimable services to the country. 
On the north side of the plaza stands the 
new capitol building, a plain but well-pro- 
portioned structure of white granite; on the 
east is the fine old metropolitan cathedral, 
and adjoining it, on the same side, is the an- 
cient palace of the Spanish viceroys, now, 
however, used for shops and offices. Near 
the western outskirts of the city is the exten- 
sive Plaza de los Martiros, so named in com- 
memoration of the patriots executed on its 
site by the royalist general, Morillo. Al- 
though beautifully laid out and made into an 
attractive pleasure ground, it has always been 
shunned by the people, for it was a veritable 
Golgotha during the revolution, and was used 
as the execution ground until the early six- 
ties, when capital punishment was abolished 
in Colombia. Not a great way from the tragic 
spot is another noted place now called Nin- 
guna Parte (literally "Nowhere"). It is 

388 



COLOMBIA 

rather a disreputable part of the city in these 
days, but, when General William Henry 
Harrison resided there as United States Min- 
ister, in 1827, it was a fashionable district. 
The old house in which he lived is still pointed 
out, as is the still older, and, if possible, still 
more dilapidated, house occupied by Baron 
von Humboldt during his year's sojourn in 
Bogota. On the northern side of the little 
Plaza de las Nieves stands the city's oldest 
landmark — the house built by Quesada. 

It would be idle to attempt to enumerate 
the grand old monasteries and convents of the 
city. Many of them occupy entire squares. 
Since the political upheaval of 1860, generally 
known as the "Mosquera Rebellion," these 
edifices have ceased to be church property. 
Some are now used as schools or hospitals, 
others as hotels, armories, and barracks; 
many are now occupied as government offices 
— the National Mint, the National Military 
Academy, the Post Office, the War and Navy 
Departments, and the noted Rosario College. 

The traveler's descent from the Bogota 
sabana to the Magdalena on his departure 
from the country, will store his memory with 
vistas of grandeur and beauty that will never 

389 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

be effaced, for the Upper Magdalena valley 
is one of the most beautiful in the world. By 
the old mule path to Honda, the head of nav- 
igation for big steamers on the Magdalena, 
by way of La Mesa, Tocaime, and Jirado, 
one will be traveling over a route that for 
centuries was the great thoroughfare for 
peon or viceroy, and is to-day practically un- 
changed in the scenes that make it interesting. 
But one can now go by rail from Bogota to 
Girardot on the Magdalena, some eighty 
miles above and south of Honda, thence by 
small steamer to Arrancapluma, where a 
short railway trip is made around the Honda 
Rapids to La Dorada, about twenty miles 
north of and down the river from the town 
of Honda. At La Dorada the five hundred 
mile journey northward down the Magda- 
lena to the Caribbean is made in one of the 
regular steamers that cover this service. The 
river trip is full of interest, for the wild 
stream, nearly as large as the Mississippi, 
flows with great rapidity throughout its 
course, and has a most varied aspect. For 
miles it spreads out in a calm, placid sheet of 
water several miles in width, then whirls over 
a series of rapids, or forms into whirlpools, 

390 



COLOMBIA 

or later races through a narrow mountain 
gorge; and, in consequence of its eccentrici- 
ties, the channel is constantly changing, to the 
great inconvenience of pilots. 

At Calamar, about seventy-five miles from 
the mouth, the traveler may exchange the 
steamer for the railroad to the port of Carta- 
gena, or continue down the Magdalena, now 
greatly increased in volume by the confluence 
of the almost equally large river Cauca, to 
the two important Caribbean ports at the 
mouth, Barranquilla and Sabanilla. The 
first part of the trip from Bogota to Giradot 
reminds one of the mountain scenery over 
the Oroya road up into the Andean plateau 
from Lima. Constantly before him, in the 
distance, are the lofty frozen peaks of To- 
lima, San Ruiz, and Herveo, towering above 
their fellows in the Central Cordillera. On 
either side of the Magdalena, the slopes of 
the two ranges in their lower reaches are 
dotted with coffee plantations; above them, 
reaching to the altitude of the paramos, the 
mountain sides are thickly overgrown with 
forests, and down in the river basin, in the 
hollow of the broad valley, the brilliant green 
of varied tropical vegetation continues, on 

391 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

past the point where the Central and Western 
Cordilleras merge in the llanos, down to the 
Caribbean coast plains; here the Magdalena 
basin spreads out over a vast area of barren 
waste. 

Barranquilla, Sabanilla, and Cartagena are 
the important commercial centers of the re- 
public on the Caribbean, the last-named being 
one of the oldest and most interesting of the 
historic old ports. Founded in 1533 by Don 
Pedro de Heredia, this port was the most 
glorious monument to Spain's military genius 
in the new world, and was properly looked 
upon as the key to her great treasure house. 
Spain spent over $60,000,000 on its fortifica- 
tions, a fabulous sum in those days, but an 
expenditure which for over two hundred years 
secured to her the mastery of the Indies. To- 
day these fortifications — the citadel within the 
landlocked harbor, the two castles dominating 
the narrow entrance, the tremendous walls 
and ramparts — stand without question as the 
most picturesque and characteristic survival 
of Spain's colonial splendor. Not even the 
perfectly preserved walls of Manila are more 
impressive. The visitor who walks to-day 
through the narrow, Moorish streets comes 




A POSADA, OR COUNTRY INN, ON THE ROAD TO BOGOTA. 




BATTLEMENTED WALL, CARTAGENA. 



COLOMBIA 

with memories of the fabulous wealth and 
the violent scenes of siege and bloodshed 
culled from romances of the days of the 
buccaneers that "sailed the Spanish Main." 
He will, however, search in vain for the 
evidences of the rich traffic once centered 
here that gave to Francisco Pizarro the in- 
spiration for his conquest of Peru. 

Cartagena, "The Heroic City," from its 
very beginning was the objective of every 
expedition undertaken to wrest from Spain 
her rich domain in the Indies; its fortifica- 
tions stood as a perpetual challenge to the 
freebooters who pillaged the Spanish Main 
in the days of the galleons. This challenge 
was accepted more than once to Cartagena's 
heavy cost. Sir Henry Morgan, Robert Vaal, 
Martin Cote, Du Casse, Sieur des Pointes, 
and Sir Francis Drake sacked the town, and 
later it was the object of the most important 
attack made against Spain in the new world 
prior to the nineteenth century, when, in 
1741, the English Admiral Vernon under- 
took his memorable campaign on the Carib- 
bean. He assembled at Jamaica 29 ships of 
the line and nearly 100 transports, carrying 
a total force of 27,000 soldiers and sailors. 

393 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

His siege of Cartagena began on the 4th of 
March and lasted two months, and was at- 
tended by enormous losses. The event is 
peculiarly interesting to North Americans 
because of the fact that the land forces, un- 
der General Wentworth, contained a contin- 
gent drawn from the thirteen English col- 
onies in North America, and that the com- 
mander of this contingent was Colonel Law- 
rence Washington, elder brother of the im- 
mortal George. It was through admiration 
for Admiral Vernon's brilliant but unsuc- 
cessful action that Washington gave to his 
Virginia estate the name of Mount Vernon. 
"Cartagena de Indias," as the old kings 
of Spain loved to call their "very royal and 
loyal city," ranks third in point of age in 
the new world, and still retains more of its 
early characteristics than any of the others. 
Its antiquity is everywhere in evidence. Like 
the battlements and castles at its entrance, 
the city seems to have been built of the 
yellow-white corral laid in concrete, which 
seems to be indestructible. If one could fly 
over it in an airship, and look down 
upon its closely massed, red-tiled houses, 
and, beyond, upon the deep green of the 

394 



COLOMBIA 

country-side, with the exquisite blue effects 
of the Caribbean and the tropic sky, the city 
would seem gemlike in its romantic beauty. 
The narrow streets of rough stone are over- 
hung at frequent intervals with the pro- 
truding windows and balconies familiar to 
visitors in Lima and others of the older 
Spanish cities, yet there is an individuality 
about the houses here that is far more fasci- 
nating, and facing the parks are many fine 
examples of the old churches and convents 
which constitute the distinctive architecture 
of the colonial regime. Surrounding these 
buildings are luxuriant gardens, presenting 
a riot of color, in which the peculiarly re- 
freshing green of the hot countries predomi- 
nates. 

Among the many substantial dwellings oc- 
cupied by the wealthy is one that was the 
seat of the terrible Inquisition which sat here 
from 1610 until 1821. San Felipe de Barajas, 
an old castle and fort lying on a low hill over- 
looking the city, is full of interesting under- 
ground passages, as are many of the fortifica- 
tions, and although utterly abandoned and 
falling into decay, is still a forceful and 
grim reminder of the mediaeval period of 

395 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

storm and stress. On the top of another hill, 
called "La Popa," lying back of the town, 
still stands the ancient convent of Santa 
Candelaria, serving as a landmark to mari- 
ners passing that way, its white or light 
yellow buildings being visible for many miles 
out at sea. Here the visitor is shown where 
a buccaneer amused himself on the occasion 
of one of the raids by hurling the nuns over 
the edge of the perpendicular cliff on which 
the convent stands. 

Cartagena in the old days surpassed Mex- 
ico, Lima, Panama, and Havana in impor- 
tance, and stood forth as the commercial giant 
of Spain in America; it represented, as did 
no other American city, the pomp and mag- 
nificence of her sixteenth and seventeenth 
century imperialism. Now all this is past; 
even as the natural gateway for Colombia's 
productiveness, she has lost her position, the 
North American-built railroad connecting 
the port with the Magdalena River, at 
Calamar, having proved powerless to re- 
store even a small measure of her prestige 
against the rising commercial importance of 
Puerto Colombia and Barranquilla. The 
latter port has now become the entrepot of 

396 



COLOMBIA 

commerce with the interior by the great 
waterway of the Magdalena. 

On the desolate stretch of Colombia's Pa- 
cific coast there is but one city of importance, 
Buenaventura. This is the busy exchange 
that taps the fertile region of the upper 
Atrato basin, and when the Panama Canal 
shall have been opened should spring into 
greater importance along with the other ports 
of the West Coast. In the interior Colombia 
possesses many cities of considerable size, 
ranging from thirty to sixty thousand inhabi- 
tants, which are centers for the mining and 
agricultural districts — Pamplona in the 
mountains near the Venezuela frontier, Bu- 
carmanga, a little to the west, Mompoz, near 
the confluence of the Cauca and Magdalena, 
once a port on the latter river but now, owing 
to the erratic wanderings of that stream, 
twenty miles east of it, Medellin, in the 
Cauca valley; Popayan and Pasto near the 
head waters of that river, and La Plata on 
the other side of the Central Cordillera. 

The Hon. John Barrett and Hon. Will- 
iam L. Scruggs, both former Ministers of 
the United States at Bogota, have written 
extensively of Colombia's commercial pos- 

397 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

sibilities and predict great strides for the 
hermit republic. "Colombia," writes Mr. 
Barrett, "is a wonderland of opportunity. 
Measured by the standards of other countries 
it can be said without exaggeration that the 
Republic of Colombia, in proportion to area 
and population, is the richest of all in the va- 
riety and extent of undeveloped resources, 
fullest in promise for future growth and re- 
ward to mankind." "Colombia," he continues, 
is at our very doors; it is nearer to the prin- 
cipal ports of the United States than any 
other South American country, and yet we 
have done little to study her internal wealth 
or to take part in her foreign commerce." 
The country is only nine hundred and fifty 
miles away from us; from Cartagena to 
Tampa, Florida, the distance is less than 
from New York to St. Louis. The foreign 
trade of Colombia last year amounted to 
$26,000,000, in which the United States par- 
ticipated to the extent of only $11,000,000. 

Mr. Scruggs says in closing his interesting 
work on Colombia: "Such is the country as 
nature has made it — picturesque, beautiful, 
and exceedingly rich and varied in undevel- 
oped resources. As yet man has done very 

398 



COLOMBIA 

little for it, the greater part being still un- 
broken wilderness. . . . The commercial pos- 
sibilities of the country are almost incalcu- 
lable; and the time is probably not very re- 
mote when the fact will be more fully realized 
by the great commercial powers of the world." 



399 



XI 



VENEZUELA 

AT the end of his "swing around the 
circle" of South American countries 
(having begun with Brazil), the trav- 
eler comes to Venezuela — the huge republic 
that bulges out into the northernmost nub of 
the continent, where the terminal ranges of 
the Andes turn eastward to meet the great 
Guiana Highlands and form those high-flung 
ramparts that protect the fertile, low-lying 
Amazon plains from the Atlantic. This 
black, mountainous front runs along the 
Caribbean coast line for some fifteen hundred 
miles, broken at intervals, however, where 
the lovely blue of the tropical sea sweeps 
inland to meet the bright green of some great 
river basin. 

Southward, Venezuela spreads down over 
an irregularly shaped territory extending 
from twelve degrees north latitude to the 
equator. Her varied topography, too, pro- 

400 



VENEZUELA 

duces almost every change of climate, from 
the cold of the mountains — some of whose 
peaks reach high enough to earn the title of 
nevada — down through the temperate zone 
of the llanos, or rolling plains that slope off 
into the great Orinoco basins, where wheat, 
corn, and cattle abound, and the country's 
great staples, coffee, cotton, and tobacco are 
grown, to the hot Orinoco jungles that trail 
off to the south, where rubber and cacao trees 
luxuriate without cultivation, and sugar cane, 
oranges, fruits, and pineapples thrive in the 
clearings. More than half of Venezuela's 
territory may be ignored from the commercial 
standpoint of to-day, for it is either Alaskan 
or Amazonian in character and can be re- 
served for later needs of the human family 
if, as Humboldt prophesied, the Amazon 
valley should become the feeding ground of 
mankind. 

No description has ever done justice to the 
beauties of Venezuela's landscape of moun- 
tain and valley and mighty rivers, of warm 
green pastures and blue skies, and the mystic 
shimmering white of an occasional snow- 
capped peak. The country that so appeals 
to the traveler's interest is nearly six hun- 

401 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

dred thousand square miles in area, and could 
include within its confines the States of Iowa, 
Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, and 
Ohio. Its mountainous coast saw the begin- 
ning of the European invasion of the new 
world. Columbus, Vespucci, and Ojeda 
touched here. Ojeda gave the country its 
name. When, on his way west from the 
Orinoco, he rounded Cape San Roman and 
turned into the Gulf of Maracaibo, he saw 
Indian villages composed of houses built on 
piles in the water along the shores, which sug- 
gested something of a resemblance to Venice, 
and he called the place Venezuela (Little 
Venice) ; and soon the whole coast, and even- 
tually the country beyond, became so known 
— a region larger than all Italy and Spain 
combined. This coast and the white-walled 
cities nestling in the heights among the mag- 
nificent trees formed the storied Spanish 
Main. 

Cumana, in the middle east, is the oldest 
European settlement in South America; it 
was in its old church that Las Casas preached 
— the saintly priest who was the Indian's 
ablest champion in the early days of Spanish 
devastation, but who, with regret be it said, 

402 



VENEZUELA 

is reputed also to have been the father of 
African slavery in the new world, for it was 
he, so the chroniclers say, who suggested that 
negroes be imported to labor in the fields 
and mines and relieve the Indians of a burden 
they were both temperamentally and physi- 
cally unfitted to bear. Venezuela was the 
birthplace of the resistance to Spain's oppres- 
sion of her colonies, and of Miranda, Bolivar, 
Sucre, and the fiery young patriot, Yanez — 
the men who led the van of that resistance. 
Through her land flows one of the world's 
greatest rivers, the Orinoco, with its four 
thousand miles of navigable waters. The 
vast productiveness of the country and its 
stores of mineral wealth are sufficient to sus- 
tain twenty times its present population of 
two millions and a half. And, finally, Vene- 
zuela is nearer to us than any other country in 
South America. 

A most agreeable route for the traveler 
leaving Colombian ports for Venezuela is by 
the steamers which zigzag around the Carib- 
bean Sea for ten days or more on the way to 
Europe, and touch at many of the once fa- 
mous old ports before reaching La Guayra, 
the sea gateway to Caracas. Immediately 

403 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

after leaving Colombian waters and round- 
ing the Guajira peninsula, the ship enters 
the great Gulf of Maracaibo, one hundred 
and fifty miles in extent from east to west, 
and sixty miles from north to south. Passing 
along in through a narrow strait, the almost 
equally large Lake of Maracaibo swells out 
before the traveler. This great body of water 
drains an extensive basin lying between two 
terminal spurs of the Andes — the Sierra de 
Pari j a and the Sierra Merida — and into it 
flow many rivers having their source in 
the surrounding mountains. Inside, on the 
east bank of the strait, lies the city of 
Maracaibo, now one of the most important 
centers on the north coast, for here is shipped 
the produce of the vast fertile region of 
western Venezuela — coifee, cacao, tobacco, 
castor beans, hardwood timber, and dyewoods. 
Much of the produce of the eastern slope of 
Colombia also finds its way to Europe and 
the States through this port; fully half of 
what is known in our markets as "Maracaibo 
coffee" is really a Colombian product. 

The tropical scenery of the plains sloping 
down to the lake, and the mountains, with 
their suggestion of snowy freshness, make 

404* 



VENEZUELA 

the setting of this port one of the most 
interesting on the continent. A dozen or 
more of the peaks in the Merida range are 
snow-capped, and two of them — Concha and 
Coluna — rise to a height of over fifteen thou- 
sand feet. Years ago a passing visitor to 
Maracaibo, mistaking the discomforts of the 
humidity and heat for general dissolution, 
pronounced the place "the graveyard of Eu- 
ropeans." Such hasty judgment is a great 
injustice, for the rate of mortality here is 
less than in many of the other tropical ports. 
Rounding the eastern enclosure of the 
Gulf, the Paraguana peninsula, the traveler 
comes upon the quaint old town of Coro, 
founded in 1527, and one of the very first of 
the European settlements. It was this town 
that the governor, sent out by the Germans to 
whom the King of Spain at first leased the 
country, made his capital, and from which he 
undertook his disastrous expeditions in search 
of El Dorado. Afterward, until 1576, it was 
the seat of Spain's government of the colony, 
and is now the capital of the State of Falcon. 
Here, also, Miranda made his first resistance 
to Spanish misrule at the beginning of the 
revolutionary war. Coro is but a few miles 

405 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

south of the Dutch Island of Curacao, that 
most picturesque fragment of Amsterdam 
perched on a coral rock. 

Sweeping out eastward over the sea, as if 
in continuation of the Merida range, is the 
Cordillera de la Silla (the "Saddle Range"), 
which terminates abruptly at Cape Codera. 
Midway between this cape and Coro, lies 
the important seaboard city of Puerto Ca- 
bello. Its environment is not only remark- 
ably attractive — like an oasis to the traveler 
who has sailed along the bleak coast range 
for many hours — but it is to-day one of the 
finest harbors in the world, as it was in the 
days of the early navigators, who said of it 
that "a vessel is safe here, anchored by a sin- 
gle hair (cabello)." The city is connected by 
rail, over the Silla Cordillera, with the pros- 
perous little city of Valencia, some fifty 
miles distant, and thence, by waters of Lake 
Valencia, with Cura and other important in- 
land towns which are commercial centers of a 
large part of the region that slopes inland 
from the coast range. Puerto Cabello is, 
therefore, the export depot of the States of 
Carabobo, Lara, and Zamora, three of the 
most productive commonwealths of the Ven- 

406 



VENEZUELA 

ezuelan federal union. It was once a ren- 
dezvous of the buccaneers and, later, the scene 
of General Paez's astonishing night attack 
on the Royalist forces during the revolution, 
when, with his small command, he forced the 
surrender of General Calzada's entire army. 
To-day the city has a population of about ten 
thousand, and many modern improvements — 
electricity, water supply, well-paved streets, 
and a number of attractive new buildings, 
that harmonize, however, with the fine old 
plazas and colonial residences. 

Eastward, some sixty-five miles toward 
Cape Codera, and halfway the length of the 
Silla range, the traveler sights the great peak 
of Picacho rising from the water's edge to a 
height of over seven thousand feet. Along 
this promontory, on a narrow strip of beach, 
are scattered groups of sixteenth century 
houses, white and red-topped for the most 
part; some of them nestle inland in coves of 
the mountains or look over the blue Carib- 
bean from shelves of the cliffs above. This is 
La Guayra, the seaport of the republic's cap- 
ital. High above, overhanging the business 
center of the town, stands the ancient and 
picturesque Spanish fortress of early colonial 

407 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

days, and just below, on another bench of 
rock, is the old bull ring. Overlooking all, 
on a high bluff, are the ruins of the old 
castle which was the residence of the Captain- 
General during the Spanish regime. To 
those who have enjoyed Kingsley's great his- 
torical novel, "Westward Ho! " the old ruins 
will have a romantic interest, for it was from 
the walls of this fortress-castle that Amyas 
Leigh escaped after his vain attempt to rescue 
the Rose of Devon. 

Baron von Humboldt said that there is but 
one place in the world that can rival La 
Guayra in the splendor of its setting — Santa 
Cruz de Teneriffe, which points one of the 
Canary Islands off the Moroccan coast. La 
Guayra is now all business, but not business 
of the feverish, bustling kind, as the vis- 
itor will find, after an entire morning spent 
in passing from one leisurely official to an- 
other in the effort to enter the country. The 
port usually serves the traveler merely as a 
landing place on his way to Caracas. If for 
any reason, however, he should prefer to de- 
lay his visit to the caprtal, he would do well 
to run up the coast some three miles east of 
the port city, to the pleasant little watering 

408 



VENEZUELA 

place, Macuto, the resort of the leisure class 
of the near-by capital. 

Caracas is but seven miles inland from the 
port as the crow flies, but the actual distance 
by rail is twenty-two miles. The steep, wind- 
ing road was started by American enterprise, 
and at a cost of over $100,000 per mile. It 
is now controlled by Englishmen, and so 
great is the traffic, that the little line never 
fails to be busy. For two hours the train 
zigzags up the perilous ascent to a height of 
three thousand feet before it turns sharply 
around a dizzy precipice and enters the beau- 
tiful valley of Caracas. Until this turn is 
made the traveler is rarely ever shut off from 
the gorgeous blue of the Caribbean. So 
superb is the constantly changing view, that 
he will feel more than repaid for the sensa- 
tions of giddiness that may assail him as the 
train swings around the many curves on the 
route, and the yawning chasms overlooked 
from the car windows are but added beauties 
to the scene, instead of death traps, for so 
excellent is the construction and so efficient 
the management that there has never been 
an accident along the entire length. 

Caracas is usually much on the visitor's 
409 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

mind during the days of his approach. His 
mental picture doubtless will have been col- 
ored from some newspaper cut of a dirty, 
tatterdemalion crew, entitled "The Presi- 
dent's Body Guard," or by some equally de- 
ceptive idea of chaotic civic affairs. But he 
will by this time have learned, from his visits 
to other Venezuelan centers, that this charm- 
ing and progressive country has been greatly 
maligned by our North American press. He 
will be entirely reassured the instant the train 
comes to a stop and he descends at the clean, 
pleasant little station and, in cab or trolley 
car, enters the fine old Spanish metropolis, 
rich in creature comforts, dignity, history, 
and civic pride. The population of the city 
now exceeds 70,000, in which there is but a 
very small percentage of citizens of foreign 
birth. 

Unquestionably Caracas is one of the most 
delightful places of residence in the world. 
It lies in a valley three thousand feet up from 
the sea, on either side of which towers a range 
of mountains, one about seven, the other nine 
thousand feet. The tropical heat is tempered 
to a springlike mildness by the high altitude, 
and the luxuriant fertility resulting from the 

410 



VENEZUELA 

misty rains wafted down from the mountains, 
make of the city and its environs a garden of 
astonishing beauty. One old gentleman, re- 
tired from the British diplomatic service after 
many years in Caracas, preferred to end his 
days here, where, he said, it was "but a step 
to Paradise." 

The city is laid out in the usual Spanish 
colonial scheme — in streets running at right 
angles to each other, forming blocks of 
nearly uniform size. Prior to the liberation 
from Spain, the streets bore names expres- 
sive of the dominant influence of religion 
— names that seem strange to us now: 
Enc amadou del Hi jo de Dios (Incarnation 
of the Son of God), Dulce N ombre de Jesus 
(Sweet Name of Jesus), Presentation del 
Nino Jesus en el Templo (Presentation of 
the Child Jesus in the Temple), Huido a 
Egypto (Flight to Egypt), and many others 
of like import — a custom prevalent in most 
of the ancient cities of Spain and her col- 
onies, and one which still prevails in Cuba. 
Fronting on the narrow, paveless streets are 
the plastered, red-tiled houses found in all 
North Andean cities; behind the bars the 
pretty Venezuelan girls look out from their 

411 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

cloistered seclusion with the same wistfulness 
that is noted in Bogota and Lima. 

The House of Congress is on the road to 
everywhere; inside it the decorations and 
frescoes are exceptionally fine, and perpetuate 
many of the principal events in the life of the 
nation. Miraflores, the appropriately named 
home of Venezuela's president, is open to vis- 
itors at certain hours. In the Panteon, to 
the north of the city, repose the remains of 
Bolivar in a superb tomb of Parian marble. 
Upon it stands a statue of the Liberator, 
wrapped in his military cloak — a noble and 
dignified figure. In front of the cathedral is 
the broad Plaza Bolivar, in the center of 
which, amidst a profusion of tropical plants, 
rises the equestrian statue of the nation's 
hero. Another may be seen in Bolivar Park, 
on which front several federal buildings; the 
coins bear Bolivar's name, and the largest 
state of the Union, as well as its capital, 
Ciudad Bolivar, is similarly honored — every- 
where throughout the republic his name is 
revered as is Washington's with us. In the 
museum of the University, in a room kept 
sacred as the "Holiest of Holies," are dis- 
played the Liberator's clothing, saddle, boots, 

412 



VENEZUELA 

and spurs, and many relics intimately con- 
nected with his brilliant career. Among them 
is a portrait of Washington, sent him by 
Custis, bearing the inscription, "This picture 
of the Liberator of North America is sent by 
his adopted son to him who acquired equal 
glory in South America." 

The white group of buildings of the Var- 
gas Hospital, on the heights near the city, 
presents a beautiful picture against the moun- 
tains in the background. This is one of the 
most extensive and best equipped in America 
— either North or South. In the Academia 
de Bellas Artes are displayed the works of 
Michelena, a son of Caracas, whose paintings 
have obtained an international reputation, 
and many other pictures by native artists 
from which one may get a good idea of the 
great scenic beauty of Venezuela. 

Although there are no active volcanoes in 
Venezuela, the country has been subject to 
many destructive earthquakes, notably in 
1812, when Caracas was nearly destroyed at 
a cost of some twelve thousand lives. As a 
consequence of the constant presence of this 
menace, the buildings of the capital are al- 
most uniformly of one story. From the 

413 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

Monte Calvario, on the outskirts of the city, 
the general aspect is flat and monotonous, but 
a walk through the broader avenues and the 
fifteen or more parks and plazas, gives to the 
visitor vistas of foliage and flowers that leave 
on his mind the impression of a lovely gar- 
den. 

The capital is connected by railway with 
Puerto Cabello, via Lake Valencia. This is 
the attractive scenic route that is made a 
part of the Caribbean excursions offered by 
the steamship lines each winter. The road 
passes through indescribably beautiful moun- 
tains and llanos — alternating wooded slopes 
and meadows, and richly productive fields of 
maize and wheat. Frequent stops are made 
at the stations of important plantations or 
the busy centers of this great agricultural 
region: La Victoria, San Mateo, and Valen- 
cia, the last-named a modernized city of forty 
thousand inhabitants and the capital of the 
State of Carabobo, one hundred and thirty- 
seven miles from Caracas. 

Turning back along the coast, eastward, 
and passing the last of the coast ranges, the 
Carib mountains, which taper off to the sharp 
point of the Paria peninsula, the traveler 

414 



VENEZUELA 

comes to the Island of Trinidad, which helps 
to enclose the Gulf of Paria. This island is 
now a British possession and is famous for 
its asphalt lakes; it is also the point at which 
Columbus stopped on his third voyage and 
met the fresh waters from the Orinoco delta, 
thus becoming convinced that he was con- 
fronted by a great continent. He gave the 
island its name when he observed from his 
masthead the three high peaks on its north- 
ern coast. 

The deltaic region of the Orinoco River 
basin extends for about four hundred and 
fifty miles in a southeasterly direction from 
the mountain ridge on the Paria peninsula to 
the British Guiana highlands, and covers an 
area of seven thousand square miles. Here 
the traveler enters a country of wild, tropical 
forests, mangrove swamps and mazelike 
waterways, teeming with strange bird and 
animal life — practically the same now as when 
it was a primeval land of mystery that ter- 
rified the first navigators. 

The delta is made up of fifty or more 
channels emptying into the Atlantic north 
of the main stream of the Orinoco. The 
region is entered by the Royal Mail through 

415 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

the central channel, or Macareo River. The 
service of ocean steamers, however, extends 
as yet only as far as Ciudad Bolivar, about 
six hundred miles from the mouth, although 
the river is navigable for smaller vessels as 
far as Apures rapids — over a thousand miles 
up its course on the Colombian frontier. For 
fifteen hundred miles the wonderful stream 
extends into the continent, draining a terri- 
tory of three hundred and sixty-four thou- 
sand square miles. With its numerous afflu- 
ents, the Orinoco affords four thousand three 
hundred miles of navigable waters for the 
service of this vast region. The main river 
rises in the Parima Mountains, which, with 
the Pacarima range, form the frontier with 
Brazil. Near its source it is tapped by the 
Casiquiare, the remarkable river, which flows 
in two directions and connects the Orinoco 
with the Rio Negro, an affluent to the 
Amazon. 

The traveler entering the Orinoco from the 
sea never forgets his first impressions. There 
is a weird grandeur about the forests that 
cannot be described — the magnificent trees, 
closely grouped and undergrown with tropical 
jungle plants that create a dense shadow land 

416 



VENEZUELA 

of mystery that is made ever more awe-inspir- 
ing to the uninitiated by the startling cries of 
the jaguar and puma and the queer howling 
of the monkeys. The leaves are thick and 
moist, and tinted a deep rich green, but glisten 
brightly in the high lights; the foliage never 
loses that freshness and brilliance which is 
assumed in our northern woodlands only in 
the lovely season of early spring. Hence 
the darker tones blending with the flitting 
shafts of sunlight develop a play of color 
effects of never-ending delight to the lover 
of nature. Countless creepers, decked with 
gorgeously colored blossoms along the water 
sides and where the sun's rays penetrate, 
twine themselves around the great tree trunks. 
In many places natural bowers are thrown 
up, that display a beauty and symmetry which 
could not be surpassed by the most consum- 
mate art. Flame-colored flamingoes, chatter- 
ing parrots and myriads of strange birds of 
brilliant plumage, enhance the beauty of the 
scene and add a welcome touch of life, yet 
serve to confirm the stranger's impression that 
he has wandered into some enchanted realm. 
South of the Orinoco there is a gradual 
rise to the Guiana Highlands, which are as 

417 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

yet sparsely populated and but little given 
over to cultivation; this hilly country, con- 
stituting about half of the republic's area, 
ascends in uneven ridges to the higher alti- 
tudes of the Brazilian frontier ranges. North 
of the river the rolling plains, or llanos, sweep 
inland from the Atlantic between the Guiana 
highlands and the coast ranges like a great 
green arm of the sea — past the Merida sierra 
and the western escarpment of the highlands, 
to merge in the hot plains of the Amazon 
region. These llanos do not correspond ex- 
actly with the Argentine pampas; they un- 
dulate and ascend gradually from the river 
bottoms to an elevation of over three hundred 
feet, whence they continue up into the foot- 
hills. They are thus known as llanos 
altos, or upper plains, and llanos bajos, or 
lower plains. The llanos present a diversified 
aspect, with much broken ground and heavily 
wooded tracts near the upper courses of the 
Orinoco affluents, and clothed, in some of the 
lower stretches, with rich tropical vegetation. 
In this fertile agricultural and grazing 
country lies a great source of future wealth 
of the nation, for although coal and iron have 
been discovered within its boundaries in prac- 

418 



VENEZUELA 

ticable quantities, Venezuela's production, 
aside from asphalt, is chiefly confined to cof- 
fee, cacao, tonka beans, sugar, cotton, indigo, 
rubber, cereals, cattle, hides, aigrette plumes, 
sarsaparilla and other medicinal plants, cab- 
inet woods, and fruits. Gold has been mined 
since the earliest colonial times. Venezuela 
also possesses several of the world's most im- 
portant asphalt deposits. "While the 'pitch 
lake' of Trinidad, a surface a mile and a half 
across of pure asphaltum," says the Pan 
American Bulletin (of July, 1911), "is per- 
haps the most remarkable occurrence of this 
mineral in nature, the lake of Bermudez, 
which covers a thousand acres in the old state 
of Bermudez, Venezuela, is fast equaling the 
first in commercial importance. Asphalt is 
also found in the Perdanales district as well 
as on the shores of Lake Maracaibo, and as 
an indication of the value of Venezuelan 
bitumen, we have the fact that this special 
variety is used to protect the tunnels of the 
New York Subway." The foreign trade of 
Venezuela in 1910 was valued at $30,336,122, 
the great bulk of which was with Europe. 
Her purchases from us amounted to but 
$3,788,539. 

419 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

The population of Venezuela is made up 
of Indians, mestizos, and unmixed descend- 
ants of the Spanish; but few North Ameri- 
cans are settled in the country thus far, in 
spite of its nearness to the United States. A 
better acquaintance between our people and 
the Venezuelan land of promise should re- 
sult from the opening of the Panama Canal. 
This most desirable consummation will oper- 
ate to the benefit of both peoples, for, being 
but six days from New York and four from 
Charleston, the flow of the country's trade 
should turn our way with increasing volume 
as our merchants become familiar with the 
ports of the Spanish Main en route to the 
canal. So far Venezuela is almost wholly 
unknown to us. Less than ten years ago, a 
bill was introduced in our Congress to con- 
solidate the diplomatic missions to the repub- 
lics of Venezuela and Guatemala, under the 
impression that the countries were adjacent! 
and during the debate one member arose and 
asked in all seriousness, "Where is Ven- 
ezuela, anyhow?" 

Like Brazil, Argentina, and Mexico, Ven- 
ezuela is a federation of states. In this re- 
spect it differs from the other Latin American 

420 



VENEZUELA 

republics, except Brazil. Its government is 
modeled closely on our own, although more 
centralized, the governors of the states being 
appointed by the federal executive. The 
country is on a gold basis; its national debt 
is not excessive; its administration of the 
postal, telegraph, and customs services is 
efficient and progressive, and, underlying the 
whole structure, is the sure guarantee of in- 
exhaustible wealth. With each new crisis in 
her history, Venezuela has advanced to a 
higher plane, and has maintained her footing. 
The men who have lifted her up the steps of 
her career — Bolivar, Paez, Vargas, Guzman 
Blanco, Crespo, and the little Andean general 
who has recently come again into interna- 
tional notice after a brief eclipse, Cipriano 
Castro — have been honest in their purpose 
and patriots first, whatever they may have 
been in their private lives. Many other names 
may be written on her roll of fame: the ro- 
mantic, but visionary, Miranda, the fiery 
young patriot Yanez, and the Venezuelan of 
all others who survived the revolution with- 
out question or reproach — Bolivar's great 
lieutenant, Sucre, who became the first presi- 
dent of Bolivia. 

421 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

Of all her latter day sons, Guzman Blanco 
accomplished most for his country. After 
serving in the diplomatic corps in Europe, 
he returned in 1870 able to assume the su- 
preme authority with an understanding of 
the needs of his disordered country and the 
knowledge and forcefulness with which to 
supply them. During his practical dictator- 
ship of eighteen years, he ruled with a rod of 
iron; he enriched himself and his favorites, 
and stamped his personality ineradicably on 
the country, it may be — but he made Vene- 
zuela a thriving country. He beautified and 
practically rebuilt the capital, subsidized and 
fostered the railroads, opened the door to 
foreign capital and traders who learned to 
believe in his stable government, and im- 
proved the ports. Under his energetic ad- 
ministration the production of coffee reached 
phenomenal proportions ; shipping made rapid 
progress; the population increased in normal 
ratio, and the homes of the people improved 
in every way. The work he did lasted. 

Castro, also, worked hard to build up a 
spirit of nationalism with which to withstand 
the impositions of foreign governments, whose 
citizens in many instances had sought by 

422 



VENEZUELA 

fraudulent claims to enrich themselves. He, 
too, won a good fight and in some respects 
advanced Venezuela to a higher place in the 
family of nations. His patriotism has been 
made grotesque in our public press, but those 
who know him well have no doubt that it was 
sincere. He is well born and able and has 
shown many of the elements of statesmanship. 
Venezuela unquestionably has suffered in- 
justice at the hands of European govern- 
ments, and of our own, in the demands they 
have sought to enforce oh behalf of adven- 
turers who have attempted to exploit the 
country to their own advantage and without 
regard to her interests — notably in the cases 
of her dispute with Great Britain over the 
boundary with British Guiana, and the 
French cable company. 



423 



XII 

THE GUIANAS 

ON the northeastern shoulder of the 
continent lies a huge block of terri- 
tory as large as France and Spain 
combined. It is in reality an island, since it 
is bounded on the north and east by the 
Caribbean Sea and Atlantic Ocean, on the 
south by the Amazon River, and on the north- 
west and west by the continuous waterway 
formed bj*- the Orinoco, the Casiquiare and 
the Negro rivers, the last named an affluent 
of the Amazon. Like the north Andean 
republics, the Guiana country is made up 
of mountains, highlands, and low-lying plains, 
and lies wholly in the tropics; its produc- 
tiveness thus embraces nearly every cereal 
and vegetable found in the three great zones 
of the earth. 

Guiana was discovered, named, and first 
occupied by the Spanish in the very begin- 

424 



THE GUIANAS 

ning of things in South America. It ac- 
quired fame in the latter part of the six- 
teenth century as one of the regions in which 
the home of El Dorado was supposed to be 
located — the fateful will-o'-the-wisp that was 
chased by the early fortune hunters all over 
the region from the mountain fastnesses about 
Bogota, in Colombia, to the Parana, in south- 
ern Brazil, the lure which brought disaster 
even to such men of intelligence and practical 
common sense as Sir Walter Raleigh and 
Sir Francis Drake. The long-sought Lake 
Guatavita (now known to be located near 
Bogota), in whose sacred waters El 
Dorado bathed his gilded body, was once 
supposed to lie near the source of the Ori- 
noco in the Parima Mountains, and, indeed, 
geologists now contend that such a lake did 
exist ages ago in these mountainous heights, 
and it is unquestionably true that on the line 
northward from this point runs a vein of gold 
richer than any in the known world, and that 
this vein had been worked by the Indians 
from time immemorial. 

The lure of the gold, purged, however, of 
its myth, has survived to our own day, for 
we all remember Great Britain's effort, in her 

425 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

boundary dispute with Venezuela, to extend 
her Guiana boundary over the rich gold 
fields south of the Orinoco delta. 

Until 1624, the Spanish succeeded in hold- 
ing Guiana against all comers; but in that 
year the Dutch West India Company gained 
a foothold at the head of the Essequibo delta, 
and was confirmed in its possession by the 
treaty of Minister in 1648, at the close of 
the war between Spain and the Netherlands. 
After this opening, other nations made haste 
to share in a partition of the rich territory. 
The French established a colony at Cayenne; 
the English made a settlement and called it 
Surreyham, after the Earl of Surrey — 
whence the present name of Surinam — and 
eventually the country was partitioned among 
the five nations: Brazil became the owner of 
that portion trailing off southward to the 
Amazon which Portugal had wrested from 
Spain, and which is now sometimes called 
Brazilian Guiana, although it is an integral 
part of the United States of Brazil; France 
still retains Cayenne, now known as French 
Guiana; the Dutch are now installed in the 
Surinam colony, which came into their pos- 
session at the time of the British occupation 

426 



THE GUIANAS 

of New York, and is now called Dutch Gui- 
ana; Great Britain owns the three settle- 
ments at Demerara, Berbice, and Essequibo, 
captured in 1803 from the Dutch and after- 
ward ceded to her by the treaty of 1814, and 
which now constitute British Guiana, and, 
lastly, Venezuela, as successor to the title of 
Spain, owns the rest of the highlands, south 
of Parima and Pacarima, the territory for- 
merly known as Spanish Guiana until the 
revolution of the Venezuelan colonists. 

British Guiana is 109,000 square miles in 
area — larger than the United Kingdom — 
and has a population of about 300,000, made 
up of 150,000 negroes, 100,000 East Indians, 
15,000 Portuguese, 10,000 British and Euro- 
peans, and the balance of mestizos. It is di- 
vided into three counties, which correspond 
to the old settlements — Demerara, Berbice, 
and Essequibo. Georgetown, the capital, is 
on the right bank of the Demerara River at 
its mouth. It is an attractive port city of 
about 60,000 inhabitants, heavily shaded with 
tropical trees, and presents the substantial 
appearance of most British colonial centers. 
Just now its interests are being rather neglect- 
ed, but, as the shipping point of a sugar 

427 



THROUGH SOUTH AMERICA 

area productive enough to supply the mother 
country, it could be developed into one of 
the great ports of the Caribbean. 

The area of Dutch Guiana is 46,060 square 
miles, and its population numbers about 70,- 
000. The capital, Paramaribo, is a city of 
some 30,000 inhabitants, located at the junc- 
tion of the Surinam and Commewine rivers, 
about ten miles from the sea. The colony's 
trade in coffee, cacao, rubber, timber, and 
gold has not yet been developed to such 
proportions as to make it self-supporting; it 
is still subsidized by the mother country. 

French Guiana is known to us principally 
as a penal settlement. Since the days of the 
French Revolution, Devil's Island, off the 
coast, has been used by the French govern- 
ment as a penal establishment, and in recent 
years the world has become familiar with its 
supposed terrors by reading the account of 
Captain Dreyfus's sufferings. Nevertheless, 
French Guiana has all the capabilities of the 
other Guianas, and could be made richly pro- 
ductive. Its area is 31,000 square miles and 
its population about 25,000; that of its cap- 
ital, the city of St. Louis, on the Island of 
Cayenne, now numbers slightly over 15,000. 

428 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 

General 

Along the Andes. A. Petrocokino 

Along the Andes and Down the Amazon. H. J. Mozans 
Ancient America. John D. Baldwin 

Andes and the Amazon, The. James Orton 

Andes and the Amazon, The. Reginald C. Enoch 

Abound the Caribbean and Acboss Panama. 

Franci* C. Nicholas 
Between the Andes and the Ocean. William Eleroy Curtis 
Capitals of South America, The. William Eleroy Curtis 

Commercial Traveler in South America. Frank Wiborg 

Continent of Opportunity, The. Francis E. Clark 

Discovery of America, The. John Fiske 

Discovery and Conquest of America, A Collection 

of Rare Documents concerning. E. Qeorge Squier 

Exploration of the Valley of the Amazon. 

William, Lewis Herndon 
Great States of South America, The. 

Charles W. Domville-Fife 
Land of To-morrow, The. (Pamphlet.) John Barrett 

Latin America of To-day and its Relations to the 

United States. (Pamphlet.) John Barrett 

Latin Amebica, A Practical Guide to. Albert Hale 

Northern Republics of South Amebica, The. 

(Pamphlet.) John Barrett 

Orinoco, Up the, and Down the Magdalena. 

H. J. Mozans 
Other Americans, The. Arthur Buhl 

Panama to Patagonia. Charles M. Pepper 

South America. (Translated.) Antonio D. Ulloa 

429 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 

South America. A. H. Keane 

South America, History op. Adnah D. Jones 

South America, History op. Charles E. Akers 

South Americak Republics, The. Thomas C. Dawson 

South American Republics, The Independence op. 

Francis L. Paxson 
South Americans, The. Albert Hale 

Spanish America. Julian Hawthorne 

Spanish Conquest in America, The. Sir Arthur Help* 



By Countries 

Aconcagua and Tierra del Fuego. Sir Martin Conway 

Argentina. W. A. Hirst 

Argentina and Her People op To-day. Nevin O. Winter 

Argentina, Modern. W. H. Koebel 

Argentina, The Republic of. A. Stuart Pennington 

Bolivia. Marie Robinson Wright 

Bolivia, A Handbook Issued by. The Pan American Union 
Bolivian Andes, The. Sir Martin Conway 

Brazil and the Brazilians. 

James C. Fletcher and D. P. Kidder 
Brazil, A Journey in. Louis Agassiz 

Brazil, The New. Marie Robinson Wright 

Brazil of To-day. (Translated.) Arthur Dias 

Chile, Historv of. Anson Uriel Hancock 

Chile, Its History and Development. O. F. Scott Elliot 
Chile, The Republic of. Marie Robinson Wright 

Chile of To-day. (By the Chilean Consul-General 

in New York.) Adolf o Ortuzar 

Colombia. (Pamphlet.) John Barrett 

Colombia, Journal of Expedition across Venezuela and. 

Hiram Bingham 
Colombia, The Republic of. F. Loraine Petre 

Colombian and Venezuelan Republics, The. 

William E. Scruggs 

430 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Countries op the King's Award, The. 

Sir Thomas H. Holdich 
Cuzco and Lima. Sir Clements R. Markham 

Ecuador, A Handbook Issued by. The Pan American Union 
Incas of Peru, The. Sir Clements R. Markham 

Incas, Royal Commentaries on. (Translated.) 

Garcilaso de la Vega 
Islands of Titicaca and Koati. Adolf F. Bandelier 

Paraguay. (Translated.) E. de Bourgade la Bar dye 

Paraguay, A Handbook Issued by. The Pan American Union 
Paraguay, History of. Charles A. Washburn 

Peru, Chronicles of. (Translated.) 

Pedro de Cieza de Leon 
Peru, History of. Sir Clements R. Markham 

Peru, Historia General. (Translated.) Garcilaso de la Vega 
Peru, History of the Conquest of. William H. Prescott 

Peru: Incidents of Travel in the Land of the Incas. 

E. George Squier 
Peru, The Old and the New. Marie Robinson Wright 

Purple Land that England Lost, The. W. H. Hudson 

Travels amongst the Great Andes of the Equator. 

Sir Edward Whymper 
Travels in the Wilds of Ecuador. Alfred Simpson 

Uruguay. W. H. Koebel 

Uruguay, A Handbook Issued by. The Pan American Union 
Venezuela. William Eleroy Curtis 

Venezuelan Republics, The Colombian and. 

William L. Scruggs 
Venezuela and Colombia, Journal of an 

Expedition across. Hiram Bingham 

Wilderness, Our Search fob a. Mary Blair and W. C. Beebe 



431 



INDEX 



Aconcagua, Mt., 380-282, 283- 
284, 366. 

Agassiz, Louis, exploration of 
Amazon by, 139-140. 

Agriculture, in Brazil, 136; 
in Argentina, 191-192; in 
Uruguay, 235; in Bolivia, 
262-264; in Ecuador, 355- 
359; in Colombia, 379-380; 
in Venezuela, 418-419. 

Alcantara, Francisco, 42, 84. 

Almagro, Diego de, 38, 41, 
42, 43, 68, 75-76; leads ex- 
pedition into Chile, 76; dis- 
appointed and repulsed in 
Chile, returns to Peru and 
wars against the Pizarro 
brothers, 79-81; death of, 
81; followers of, assassinate 
Pizarro, 83-85. 

Alpaca, the, in Peru, 47; in 
Argentina, 216. 

Altar, El, volcano, Ecuador, 
367. 

Alvarado, Alonso de, 82. 

Alvarado, Pedro de, 75-76. 

Amambay Mountains, 241. 

Amazon River, discovery of, 
81 ; description of, 137 ff. ; 
sources of, in Peruvian An- 
des, 322. 

Andes Mountains, nature of, 
in Chile, 277-288; railway 
through the, 280; in Peru, 
321; in Colombia, 375-376. 

Animals of Amazon country, 
141. 

Antofagasta, city of, 292, 293- 
295. 

Antofagasta, Province of, 287, 
290. 



Antofagasta-La Paz railway, 
261. 

Aramcana of Ercilla, 102-103. 

Araucanian Indians, 101 ff. ; 
wars of the Spanish with, 
102-103; customs, religion, 
and dress, 104-105; Val- 
divia's war with, 106-109; 
treaties between Spanish 
and, 110-111. 

Architecture, styles of, in 
South American cities, 232- 
233. 

Arequipa, city of, 82, 332- 
333; Harvard Observatory 
at, 333-334. 

Argentina, Spanish conquest 
of northern areas of, 112- 
113; area and coast-line, 
190; natural resources, 191- 
192; government, 192-193; 
population, 193; volume of 
trade with Europe as com- 
pared with that with United 
States, 194; division into 
Buenos Aires and "the 
Camp," 194-195; political 
history, 195-197; rapid ad- 
vance of, since 1862, 197- 
198; railways, immigration, 
and education in, 198; con- 
ditions of life in Buenos 
Aires, 198-213; "the Camp," 
214 ff.; cattle, horses, sheep, 
goats, etc., of, 216-217; 
gradual introduction of 
small landholders into, 219; 
territory known as Pata- 
gonia, 223-225; Tierra del 
Fuego, 225; tropical wilds 
of the north, 226-227. 



433 



INDEX 



Asphalt deposits, 415, 419. 

Asses, in Argentina, 216. 

Asuncion, Paraguay, 241 ; 
population and character, 
245-246, 251-252. 

Atacama, Province of, 277, 
287. 

Atacames, Ecuador, 358. 

Atahualpa, defeat of Huascar 
by and accession to Inca 
throne, 59-61; made a pris- 
oner by Pizarro, 61-65; ran- 
som paid by, 66; Pizarro's 
treachery toward and mur- 
der of, 66-68. 

Atrato River, 376. 

Aucasquilucha, Mt., 278. 

Ayacucho, battle of, 132. 

Aymara Indians, 48. 



Bahia, State of, black dia- 
monds in, 189. 

Bahia Blanca, city of, 195. 

Balboa, Vasco Nunez de, 22- 
25, 35, 36. 

Balsa rafts, Guayaquil, 363. 

Balsas, reed boats on Lake 
Titicaca, 57. 

Banana trees, Ecuador, 364. 

Barranquilla, 391, 392, 396- 
397. 

Barrett, John, Independent 
article by, quoted, 315; on 
Colombia's commercial pos- 
sibilities, 397. 

Belem, city of, 137, 139, 146- 
153. 

Belgrano, Manuel, 123. 

Belgrano, suburb of Buenos 
Aires, 202. 

Bello Horizonte, city of, 186- 
187. 

Benalcazar, Sebastian de, 76, 
92, 95, 96, 370. 

Bermudez, asphalt lake of, 
419. 



Bio-bio River, 101, 102, 105, 
106, 108, 111. 

Bitumen from Venezuela, 419. 

Black diamonds, 189. 

Blanco, Guzman, 422. 

Blancos, Uruguayan political 
faction, 238. 

Boers in Patagonia, 225. 

Bogota, 95, 383, 384, 385-389. 

Bolfvar, Simon, 123, 129; San 
Martin's retirement in fa- 
vor of, 129-130; career of, 
130-133; Bolivia named for, 
259; period of residence in 
Bogota, 387-388; tomb of, 
Caracas, 412; relics of, at 
Caracas, 412-413. 

Bolivia, Pizarro's expedition 
into, 82; position, 257-258; 
people, 259; area and cli- 
mate, 259-260; scenery, 261- 
262 ; agricultural produc- 
tions, 262-264 ; mineral 
wealth, 264-266; cities and 
ruins in, 266-274. 

Bolognesi, Colonel, 328. 

Bomfim, Senhor, quoted, 175. 

Botafogo Bay, 163, 167. 

Botanical garden, at Bel£m, 
150; at Rio de Janeiro, 
168-169. 

Boyacd, battle of, 131. 

Brandao, Frei Caetano, statue 
of, Belem, 150-151. 

Brazil, discovery of, 18; ex- 
ploration of, by Vespucci, 
18-19 ; secures independ- 
ence, 133; area and popula- 
tion of present republic, 
134-135; international com- 
merce, 135-136; the Ama- 
zon country, 137-153; rail- 
ways, 153-154; cities of 
coast, 154-160. 

Brazil wood, 19, 33. 

British, capital of, invested 
in Argentine railways, 197- 



434 



INDEX 



198; residing in Buenos 
Aires, 203; club life of, 
Buenos Aires, 207-208; in- 
vestments of, in Argentine 
land, 219; in Patagonia, 
224; as investors in Monte- 
video, 231. 

British Guiana, 426, 427-428. 

Bucarmanga, Colombia, 397. 

Buenaventura, Colombia, 397. 

Buenos Aires, first settlement 
on site of, 113; pride of 
citizens of, in their city, 
194-195; in character simi- 
lar to Chicago, 198-199 ; im- 
pressive dock system of, 
199-200; commerce of, 200- 
201; the aesthetic side of, 
201-202; influence of Paris 
on the culture, dress, and 
customs of, 202-203; for- 
eign colonies in, 203; pa- 
triotism of citizens of, 203- 
204; newspapers of, 204- 
205; places of amusement, 
opera, cafes, etc., of, 205- 
206; club life in, 207-210; 
the Jockey Club, 208-210; 
contrasts of prodigality and 
destitution in, 211; nar- 
rowness of streets, 212-213; 
expense of living in, 213; a 
well-appointed city in all 
respects, 213-214. 

Buenos Aires, Province of, 
197. 

Buenos Aires, University of, 
198. 

Buenos Aires, Viceroyalty of, 
116. 

Bull, papal, dividing New 
World between Spain and 
Portugal, 14, 17. 

Caaguazu Mountain's, 241. 
Cabot, Sebastian, 31-32. 
Cabral, Pedro Alvarez, 18. 



Cacao trees, Ecuador, 356- 
357. 

Cafes, at Bel6m, 152-153; at 
Rio de Janeiro, 171; Bue- 
nos Aires, 211-212. 

Callao, description of, 318- 
319. 

Cape Horn, 225-226. 

Caquet£ River, 376. 

Carabobo, State of, 406. 

Caracas, Venezuela, 409-414. 

Carriage parade, Buenos 
Aires, 210. 

Cartagena, Colombia, 90, 392- 
396. 

Cartier, Jacques, 22. 

Casapalca, town of, 331. 

Casas, Bartolom6 de las, 86, 
402-403. 

Castro, Cipriano, 421, 422-423. 

Castro, Vaca de, 83, 86. 

Cattle-raising, in Rio Grande 
do Sul, 186; in Argentina, 
191, 216; in Uruguay, 235. 

Cauca River, 376, 391. 

Cauchi tribe of Indians, 47. 

Caupolican, Araucanian chief, 
102-103, 106, 107, 108. 

Cayenne, Island of, 428. 

Cedar from Colombia, 380. 

Century plant in Ecuador, 
354. 

Chacabuco, battle of, 125, 
279. 

Chachacomani, Mt., 258. 

Chaco region, 218, 226, 240. 

Charrua Indians, 237. 

Chaves, Francisco, 84. 

Chibcha Indians, 94-95. 

Chicago, comparison of Bue- 
nos Aires and, 199, 201-202. 

Chile, Almagro leads a force 
into, 76; Valdivia under- 
takes conquest of, 82; 
Spanish wars in attempts to 
conquer native tribes of, 
97-112; War of Independ- 



INDEX 



ence in, 124-126; proclama- 
tion of independence of, 
126; the matter of a name 
for, 275-276; shape, loca- 
tion, and area, 276-277; 
commerce, 277; mountains, 
passes, and other surface 
features, 278-288; nitrate of 
soda deposits, 288-292 ; 
cities, 293-307; war be- 
tween Peru and, 297; 
islands of southern, 307 ff. ; 
mountain ranges along 
Strait of Magellan, 310-313. 

Chiloe, Island of, 286, 307. 

Chiloe, Province of, 286. 

Chimborazo, Mt., 365-366. 

Chincona tr'ies, 263. 

Chonos Archipelago, 307. 

Christ of the Andes, the, 222- 
223. 

Chubut, Territory of, 224. 

Church, F. E., "Heart of the 
Andes," by, 365. 

Cigars, Brazilian, 159. 

Cipango, island of (Japan), 
9, 14. 

Ciudad Bolivar, 412, 416. 

Club life in Buenos Aires, 
207-210. 

Coast Range, Brazilian, 163- 
164. 

Coati, island of, 57, 336. 

Coca, 357. 

Coca leaf, chewing of the, 
262-263. 

Cochabamba, 261. 

Cochrane, Lord, 127. 

Cocoa, 357-358. 

Coelho, Duarte, 34. 

Coffee, production of, in Bra- 
zil, 136; in State of Sao 
Paulo, 176; exportation of, 
from Santos, 182-183; be- 
ginnings and increase in 
growth of, in Brazil, 183- 
184; description of planta- 



tions, 184-185; production 
of, in Colombia, 380; in 
Venezuela, 401; Maracaibo 
coffee, 404. 

Colleges, at Sao Paulo, 179. 

Colocolo, Araucanian chief, 
106. 

Colombia, early exploration 
of, 90-97; formation of Re- 
public of, 131 ; location and 
area, 375; mountains and 
river systems, 375-376; min- 
eral wealth, 376-379; agri- 
cultural products, 379-380; 
range in climate, 380-381 ; 
railways, 381-382 ; moun- 
tain scenery, 382-384; trip 
down the Magdalena River, 
389-392; cities and sea- 
ports, 392-396; commercial 
possibilities of, 397-399. 

Colonial system, Spanish, in 
South America, 113-120. 

Col6n Opera House, Buenos 
Aires, 206-207. 

Colorados, Uruguayan politi- 
cal faction, 238. 

Columbus, Bartholomew, 7, 
10, 15. 

Columbus, Christopher, 7-11 ; 
personal appearance, 11; 
historic voyage of, 11-13; 
second voyage of, 15-16; 
later voyages and death, 16- 
17. 

Columbus, Diego, 15. 

Coluna, Mt., 405. 

Commerce, of Argentina, 191- 
192; at Buenos Aires, 200- 
201; of Uruguay, 235; of 
Chile, 277; possibilities for, 
in Colombia, 397-399; of 
Venezuela, 419; of the 
Guianas, 427-428. 

Compilation of Laws of the 
Kingdoms of the Indies, 
code known as, 113, 114. 



436 



INDEX 



Concepci6n, Chile, 105, 287. 

Concha, Mt., 405. 

Conway, Sir Martin, quoted, 
280-282, 311-313. 

Copper, in Bolivia, 266. See 
Mineral resources. 

Coquimbo, Chile, 100, 101. 

Coquimbo, Province of, 287. 

C6rdoba, city of, 195. 

Cordoba, University of, 198. 

Coro, Venezuela, 405-406. 

Corrientes, 245. 

Cort6s, Hernando, 30-31, 81. 

Cosmas, Egyptian monk, 2-3. 

Cotopaxi, Mt., 367. 

Council of the Indies, 35, 117. 

Cucuta, battle of, 131. 

Cumand, Venezuela, 402. 

Curagao, Island of, 406. 

Curtis, W. E., quoted, 164- 
165, 301. 

Cuzco, founding of, in 12th 
century, 48; appearance of, 
at time of the Incas, 52; 
Pizarro's march on and oc- 
cupation of, 68-70; descrip- 
tion of, 342-344, 349-351; 
ruins at, 343-349. 



Darwin, Mt., 311. 

D'Aubigny, quoted, 262. 

Davila, Pedrarias, 36. 

Dawson, T. C, quoted, 6, 23, 
37, 41, 83-85, 88-89, 100- 
101, 111, 158-159, 246-249, 
250-251. 

Desiderato, Cape, 28. 

Desolation Island, 310. 

De Soto, Hernando, 43-44, 68. 

Devil's Island, French Gui- 
ana, 428. 

Diamantina, town of, 189. 

Diamonds, Brazilian, 189 ; 
black, mined in State of 
Bahia, 189. 

Dias, Arthur, quoted, 140. 



Dias, Bartholomew, 7. 
Docks, of Buenos Aires, 199- 

200; of Montevideo, 229. 
Dutch Guiana, 426-427, 428. 



Earthquake, of 1859 in 
Ecuador, 368; of 1877, 371- 
372. 

Earthquakes, in Venezuela, 
413. 

Ecuador, invasion of, by a 
lieutenant of Pizarro's, 76; 
area, population, and polit- 
ical divisions, 352; river 
systems, 352-353; climate, 
353-354; plants, shrubs, and 
trees, 354-358; voyage along 
coast of, 360-361; moun- 
tains, 365-372. 

Eden, Richard, 27. 

Education, in Brazil, 178-180; 
in Argentina, 198. 

El Dorado, legend of, 91-96, 
425. 

Emeralds of Colombia, 35, 
377-379. 

Encomiendas, system of, 86, 
87. 

England, commerce between 
Brazil and, 136; capital 
from, invested in Argentine 
railways, 197-198. 

English, in Valparaiso, 297. 
See British. 

Episcopal seminary, Sao 
Paulo, 179. 

Ercilla, Alonso de, 102-103. 

Esmeraldas, Province of, 358. 

Essequibo, 426, 427. 

Estates or ranches of Argen- 
tina, 214-219. 

Eucalyptus trees, Montevideo, 
232. 

Exposition of 1910 at Buenos 
Aires, 198. 



437 



INDEX 



Federmann, Nicolacts, 95, 96. 

Fiske, John, quoted, 15, 17, 
80-81. 

Forests, of Brazil, 136; of 
Paraguay, 241; of southern 
Chile, 286-287, 308-310; of 
Ecuador, 356, 363-364. 

Formosa, territory of, in Ar- 
gentina, 226. 

Fortaleza, city of, 154. 

Fletcher, James C, quoted, 
161-162. 

Francia, Jose Rodriguez Gas- 
par, 246-249. 

Fray Bentos, Liebig Com- 
pany plant at, 235-236. 

French, in Buenos Aires, 203; 
in Valparaiso, 297, 298. 

French Guiana, 426, 428. 

Froward, Cape, 311. 

Fruit-raising at Mendoza, 
221. 

Fuegian Archipelago, 225-226. 

Funza River, 385. 

Gallo, Island of, 39. 

Gama, Vasco da, 7, 16-17. 

Garcilaso, de la Vega. See 
Vega. 

Gasca, Pedro de la, 89-90. 

Gaucho, Argentine cowboy, 
217-218. 

Georgetown, British Guiana, 
427. 

Germans, steamships of, at 
Buenos Aires, 200; resi- 
dent at Buenos Aires, 203; 
investments of, in Argen- 
tine land, 219; in Pata- 
gonia, 224; in Valparaiso, 
297. 

Gilded Man, legend of the, 
91, 425. 

Goats, in Argentina, 216; in 
Uruguay, 235. 

Gold, of the Incas, 54, 58, 73- 
74; mining of, in State of 



Minas Geraes, 187-189; in 
Venezuela, 419; in the Gui- 
anas, 425. See also Min- 
eral resources. 

Gomara, Francisco Lopez de, 
quoted, 54. 

Grains, production of, in Ar- 
gentina, 192. 

Gran Chaco, 218, 226, 240. 

Great Western Railroad, Ar- 
gentina, 220. 

Guadelupe, Mt., 385, 387. 

Guallatiri, Mt., 257. 

Guano deposits, Peru, 321. 

Guarany Indians, 242. 

Guatavita, Lake, 425. 

Guayaquil, founding of, 76; 
manufacture of Panama 
hats at, 359-360; descrip- 
tion of city, 360-363. 

Guayas River, 76, 353, 361. 

Guayra, cataract of, 244-245. 

Guiana Highlands, 417-418. 

Guianas, location and topog- 
raphy, 424; discovery, nam- 
ing, and occupation by the 
Spanish, 424-425; Dutch, 
English, and other nations 
in, 426-427; area, popula- 
tion, and productions, 427- 
428. 

Hancock, A. U., "History of 
Chile" by, cited, 103. 

Harvard Observatory, Are- 
quipa, 333-334. 

Hawthorne, Julian, quoted, 5, 
13-14, 22, 27-28, 46-49, 68, 
80-81, 89-90, 93, 104-105, 
106-109, 110-111, 112. 

Helps, Sir Arthur, quoted, 
81. 

Heredia, Pedro de, 90, 91, 
392. 

Herndon, W. H., exploration 
of Amazon by, 139, 140, 
141, 144-145. 



438 



INDEX 



Herveo, Mesa de, 385, 391. 

Holmes, Burton, quoted, 161, 
172-173, 283-284. 

Honda, Colombia, 390. 

Hope emerald, the, 379. 

Horse-raising, in Argentina, 
191, 216; in Uruguay, 235. 

Hospitals, Buenos Aires, 213. 

Houses, in Santiago, 305-306; 
of Guayaquil, 361-362; of 
Quito, 373. 

Huallaga River, 322. 

Huarina, battle of, 89. 

Huascar, Inca sovereign, 59- 
61, 65. 

Huatanay River, 343. 

Huayna Capac, 45, 59. 

Humboldt, Baron von, explo- 
ration of Amazon by, 138; 
quoted, 364, 381 ; house oc- 
cupied by, in Bogota, 389. 

iGUAzti Falls, 227. 

Illampu, Mt., 258. 

Illimani, Mt., 258. 

Immigration, to Argentina, 
198. 

Imperial, Chile, 105. 

Inca's Head, the, 368. 

Incas, extent of empire, 44; 
question of origin, 44-49; 
lack of written records 
among, 46; peoples who an- 
tedated, 46-47; history of, 
previous to conquest by 
Spanish, 47-49; highways of 
the, 49; worship of sun and 
moon by, 50, 57-58, 335; 
marriage of sovereigns, 50; 
trade carried on by water 
only, 51 ; irrigation of land 
practiced under the, 51; 
common ownership of land, 
51-52; temple and palaces 
of, at Cuzco, 52-54; differ- 
ent type of people from Pe- 
ruvian Indians of to-day, 



55-56; dress, 56-57; birth- 
place and legend of birth, 
335-336. 

Indians, of northern Argen- 
tina, 226; in El Chaco, 240; 
work of Jesuits among 
Paraguayan, 242-245 ; na- 
tives of Tierra del Fuego, 
285-286. 

Iquima, Mt., 278. 

Iquique, city of, 294. 

Irala, Domingo, 113, 242. 

Irrigation, practiced by In- 
cas, 51; possibilities of, in 
Peru, 321. 

Islands of southern Chile, 
307-308. 

Italians, as laborers in State 
of Sao Paulo, 184; resident 
in Buenos Aires, 203; in 
Montevideo, 231; in Valpa- 
raiso, 297. 

Jamacchppeke plant, 263. 
Jamaica, discovery of, 16. 
Jaques, Christovao, 32. 
Jesuit missions in the Parana 

basin, 242-245. 
Jews, in Patagonia, 225. 
Jockey Club, Buenos Aires, 

208-210. 
Juliaca, town of, 334. 
Junln, battle of, 132. 
Jurujuba Bay, 163. 

Karkaake, Mt., 258. 
Koati, Island of, 57, 336. 
Koebel, W. H., "Modern Ar- 
gentina" by, 218. 

La Condamine, explorer of 

Amazon, 138. 
Ladrorie Islands, discovery of, 

by Magellan, 28. 
Lage, Fort, 163. 
La Guayra, Venezuela, 407- 

408. 



439 



INDEX 



Landed estates of Spanish 

conquerors, 77, 82. 
La Paz, naming of, 267-268; 

altitude and location, 268; 

description of, 268-270, 273- 

274. 
La Plata, city of, 195, 197. 
Lara, State of, 406. 
Largo da Polvora, Belem, 

151-152. 
Las Cuevas, station of, 222. 
La Serena, Chile, 287. 
Lautero, Araucanian hero, 

103, 107, 108; death of, 108- 

109. 
Lenglet, Dr., quoted, 255-256. 
Leon, Cieza de, quoted, 55. 
Liebig Company's plant, Fray 

Bentos, 235-236. 
Lima, founding of, by Pizarro, 

74-75, 324; attracts other 

Spanish adventurers, 75-76; 

description of modern, 325- 

330. 
Linseed, production of, in 

Argentina, 191. 
Llamas, in Peru, 47, 340-342; 

in Argentina, 216. 
Llanos of Venezuela, 418. 
Llanquihue, Province of, 278. 
Llulaillaco, Mt., 278. 
Los Patos Pass, 279. 
Lopez, Carlos Antonio, 249. 
Lopez, Francisco, 249-251. 
Luque, Hernando de, 38. 

Macareo River, 416. 

Mackenzie College, Sao Paulo, 
179. 

Magdalena River, 376; scen- 
ery in valley of, 389-392. 

Magellan, Ferdinand, voyage 
and discoveries of, 25-29. 

Magellan, Strait of, 27-28, 
225, 310-311. 

Mahogany, from Colombia, 
380. 



Maize, production of, in Ar- 
gentina, 191. 

Manaos, city of, 144-146. 

Manco Capac, 45, 69. 

Manco Capac II, 69-70. 

Mapocho River, 99. 

Maracaibo, city of, 404-405. 

Maracaibo, Gulf of, 404. 

Maracaibo, Lake, 404; asphalt 
on shores of, 419. 

Maracaibo coffee, 404. 

Markham, Sir Clements, quot- 
ed, 53-54, 55, 346-349. 

Maule River, 97, 101. 

Maypfi, battle of, 126. 

Mbaracayu Mountains, 241. 

Medellen, Colombia, 397. 

Meiggs, Henry, 331. 

Meiggs, Mt., 331. 

Mendoza, Pedro de, 113. 

Mendoza, city of, 220-221. 

Mendoza, Province of, 105. 

Mendoza River, 221-222. 

Mercedario, Mt., 281. 

Merida range, Venezuela, 
404, 405. 

Mexico, Cortes in, 30-31. 

Michelena, Venezuelan artist, 
413. 

Minas Geraes, State of, 186- 
189. 

Mineral resources, of Chile, 
288; of Peru, 315; of Ecua- 
dor, 356; of Colombia, 377- 
379. 

Mining, in Brazil, 136; in 
State of Minas Geraes, 187- 
189. 

Miniquis, Mt., 257. 

Miranda, Francisco, 130, 421. 

Misiones territory of Argen- 
tina, 226, 227. 

Misti, volcano, Peru, 334. 

Mitre\ Bartolom6, 197. 

Mollendo, city of, 332. 

Mompoz, Colombia, 397. 

Monserrate, Mt., 385, 387. 



440 



INDEX 



Montana region of Peru, 320, 
321-322. 

Monteagudo, Bernardo, 129. 

Montesino, Anales del Perm, 
by, quoted, 40. 

Montevideo, 229 ff. ; compari- 
son with Buenos Aires, 230; 
material prosperity of, 230- 
231 ; foreigners, theaters, 
and club life of, 231; the 
Prado Park, 231-232; 
houses, gardens, and social 
life of, 232-234. 

Montezuma, SeSor, 31. 

Moon, worship of, by Pe- 
ruvian Indians, 50, 57-58, 
335-336, 337. 

Mosquera Rebellion, 389. 

Mountain sickness, 266. 

Mozans, H. J., quoted, 23-25, 
45, 57, 70, 74-75, 140-141, 
271-273, 333, 335-338, 349, 
371-372. 

Mules, in Argentina, 216; in 
Uruguay, 235. 

Muzo, emerald mines of, 377, 
378, 379. 

Nabitco, Joahim, 175. 

Negro River, 144, 223. 

New Granada, Viceroyalty of, 
116, 384-385. 

New Spain, Viceroyalty of, 
114. 

Newspapers of Buenos Aires, 
204-205. 

Nictheroy, city of, 163. 

Nitrate of soda beds, Chile, 
288-292. 

Nombre de Dios, 118. 

North Americans, small num- 
ber of, in Buenos Aires, 
203. 

Obydos, city of, 146. 
O'Higgins, Bernardo, 124, 
125, 126, 279. 



Oil, production of, in Argen- 
tina, 192. 

Ojeda, Alonso de, 20, 37; 
Venezuela named by, 402. 

Olinda, suburb of Recife, 158. 

Opera in Buenos Aires, 206. 

Orellana, Francisco de, dis- 
covers and explores the 
Amazon, 82, 138. 

Organ Mountains, 162. 

Orgonez, Rodrigo de, 81. 

Oriente River system, 353. 

Orinoco River, 401, 403; delta 
of the, 415-416; entrance 
upon, from the sea, 416- 
417. 

Oroya Railroad, 330-331. 

Orton, James, quoted, 354, 
369. 

Ossorio, General, 124-125. 



Pacific Ocean, Balboa's dis- 
covery of, 22-25; named by 
Magellan, 28. 

Paillamachu, Araucanian 
chief, 109-110. 

Pampas of Argentina, 214 ff. 

Pamplona, Colombia, 397. 

Panamd Canal, importance 
of, to relations between the 
two Americas, xv-xvii; in- 
fluence on trade between 
Venezuela and United 
States, 420. 

Panama hats, manufacture of, 
359-360. 

Pan American Bulletin, quot- 
ed, 288-290, 377-379, 419. 

Pan American Union, vii-xi; 
publications of, ix-x; li- 
brary of, x. 

Para (Belem), city of, 146- 
153. 

Pard River, 137, 147-148. 

Paraguay, situation and area, 
239-240; climate and sur- 



441 



INDEX 



face features, 240-241; for- 
ests, 241 ; Indians and mes- 
tizos in, 242; Jesuit mis- 
sions in, 242-244; character 
of interior, 244-245; stormy 
political history of, 246- 
251; great commercial pos- 
sibilities of, 253. 

Paraguay River, 245. 

Paraguay tea, 185-186, 192, 
253-256. 

Paramaribo, Dutch Guiana, 
428. 

Parand, city of, 195. 

Parana River, Cabot's explo- 
ration of, 32; trip on the, 
226-227; picturesqueness of, 
227 ; Great Cataract of, 244- 
245. 

Patagonia, 215, 218-219, 223- 
225. 

Patia River, 376. 

Pearl fisheries of Colombia, 
35, 377. 

Pedro II of Brazil, 174. 

Pernambuco, city of, 154, 
156-157. 

Pernambuco, colony of, 34. 

Peru, the ancient civilization 
of, 46-47 (see under In- 
cas) ; War of Independence 
in, 126-128; war with Chile 
over nitrate provinces, 292; 
products of, in the world's 
commerce, 315-316; voyage 
along coast of, 316-318; 
area, surface features, and 
rainfall, 320-322 ; popula- 
tion and its disposition, 322- 
323 ; railways, 330-332 ; 
ruins of the Incas and their 
predecessors in, 339, 343- 
349. 

Peru, Viceroyalty of, 114- 
116. 

Peruvian bark, 263. 

Petropolis, city of, 169-170. 



Pezuela, Joaquin de la, 126- 
127. 

Picacho, Mt., 407. 

Pichincha, battle of, 181. 

Pichincha, Mt., 369. 

Pigs, in Argentina, 216; in 
Uruguay, 235. 

Pilcomayo River, 245. 

Pillar, Cape, 310. 

Pizarro, Francisco, early his- 
tory of, 37; first expedition 
of, to Peru, 38-42; en- 
nobled by the King of 
Spain, 42 ; treacherous deal- 
ings of, with Atahualpa, 
61-68; murder of Atahualpa 
by, 68; advances to and oc- 
cupies Cuzco, 68-70; takes 
possession of government, 
72-73; founds city of Lima 
as his capital, 74-75; holds 
his new empire against Al- 
magro, 80-81 ; assassination 
of, by adherents of Alma- 
gro, 83-85; tribute to great 
qualities of, 85; relics of, in 
modern Lima, 327. 

Pizarro, Gonzalo, 42, 78, 80, 
81, 87-88, 90. 

Pizarro, Hernando, 42, 75, 78, 
80, 81. 

Pizarro, Juan, 42, 78. 

Plata River, 26, 191, 228-229. 

Platinum deposits, Colombia, 
377. 

Pororoca, the, 147-148. 

Portezuelo de Come Caballo, 
279. 

Porto Alegre, 153, 186. 

Portuguese, as discoverers, 5- 
7; lands granted to, in di- 
vision of New World by 
papal bull, 14-15; attempt 
to colonize Brazil, 32-34. 

Potato, discovery of the, in 
Peru, 47. 



442 



INDEX 



Potatoes as a food among 

Peruvians, 342. 
Potosf, silver mines of, 82, 

88, 265, 266. 
Prado Park, Montevideo, 231- 

232. 
Precious stones, mining of, in 

Brazil, 189; in Bolivia, 266; 

in Colombia, 377-379. 
Prensa newspaper, building 

of, Buenos Aires, 204-205. 
Prescott, W. H., quoted, 40- 

41, 69, 73-74, 343-346. 
Promaucian Indians, 101. 
Puente del Inca, 222. 
Puerto Cabello, Venezuela, 

406, 414. 
Puerto Colombia, 396. 
Pular, Mt., 278. 
Puna, island of, 43. 
Punta Arenas, city of, 224, 

285, 311. 

Quebracho tree, the, 226- 
227. 

Quesada, Gonzalo Jiminez de, 
92-96. 

Quichua Indians, 47. 

Quinine, production of, 263. 

Quinsay, city of (Pekin), 9, 
12, 15. 

Quintas, in Montevideo, 232, 
233. 

Quinze Puntas range, 241. 

Quito, 48, 363, 369, 372-374. 

Quizquiz, Atahualpa's gen- 
eral, 67, 70. 

Rada, Juan de la, 83. 

Railways, Brazilian, 153-154; 
Argentine, 191, 220; Eng- 
lish capital invested in Ar- 
gentina, 197-198; trans-An- 
dine, 222-223, 280; of Uru- 
guay, 234; Bolivian, 261; 
Peruvian, 330-332 ; of Ecua- 
dor, 363; of Colombia, 381- 
382; of Venezuela, 409. 



Ramalho, Jofio, 33. 

Ranches, Argentine, 214-219. 

Recife, city of, 153, 157-158. 

Repartimientos of the Span- 
ish conquerors, 82, 86. 

Revolutions, outgrowing of, 
xiii. 

Ringmann, Mathias, 21. 

Riobamba, city of, 370. 

Rio Branco, Baron, 174-175. 

Rio de Janeiro, 153; the ap- 
proach to, 160-164; scenic 
wonders of bay of, 160-164; 
description of city, 164 ff. 

Rio Grande do Sul, produc- 
tion of yerba mati in, 185- 
186. 

Rio Negro, Territory of, 224. 

Rodadero River, 343. 

Rojas, Diego de, 112. 

Root, Elihu, quoted, 177. 

Rosario, city of, 195, 226. 

Rosario College, Bogotd, 389. 

Rubber, production of, in 
Brazil, 136-137. 

Rubber estate, description of 
a, 149-150. 

Rubber trees, 143. 

Ruhl, Arthur, quoted, 169, 
173-176, 303-305. 

Ruins, prehistoric, 46; of Tia- 
huanaco, 48, 271-273; about 
Lake Titicaca, 338-339; of 
Sacsahuaman, 343, 346-349. 

Sabaniixa, 391, 392. 

Sacsahuaman, ruins of, 52, 78, 
343, 346-349. 

St. Julian, harbor of, 26. 

St. Louis, French Guiana, 
428. 

Salt mines of Colombia, 377. 

Salta, battle of, 123. 

San Francisco Xavier Uni- 
versity of, 267. 

Sangai, Mt., 366. 

San Jos6, Mt., 278. 



443 



INDEX 



San Lazaro, Church of, in 
Cuzco, 350. 

San Marcos, University of, 
330. 

San Martin, General Jos6 de, 
123-124; crossing of the 
Andes by, 125-126, 279; de- 
feats Royalist army in 
Chile, 126; liberates Peru 
from Spanish rule, 127-128; 
voluntary retirement of, 
129-130; tomb of, m Bue- 
nos Aires, 130. 

San Miguel, Gulf of, 23. 

San Rafael Lake, 285. 

San Ruiz, Mt., 391. 

San Salvador, Island of, 12. 

Santa Candelaria, convent of, 
Cartagena, 396. 

Santa Catalina, convent of, in 
Cuzco, 350. 

Santa Cruz, Bolivia, 261. 

Santa Cruz, Fort, 163. 

Santa Cruz, Territory of, 224. 

Santa Lucia, hill and fortress 
of, 99-100, 301. 

Santa Marta, Colombia, 90. 

Santarem, city of, 146. 

Santiago, Chile, founding of, 
by Valdivia, 99-100; men- 
tioned, 287; description of, 
299-307. 

Santo Domingo, convent of, 
in Cuzco, 350. 

Santos, city of, 153, 176, 181- 
182. 

San Valentin, Mt., 284. 

Sao Joao, Fort, 163. 

Sao Leopoldo, city of, 186. 

Sao Luiz de Maranhao, 154, 
155. 

Sao Paulo, city of, 176-181. 

Sao Salvador da Bahia, 34, 
153, 154, 159-160. 

Sao Vicente, colony of, 33. 

Sarmiento, Domingo Faus- 
tino, 197. 



Sarmiento, Mt., 311-313. 

Scots, in Patagonia, 224. 

Scruggs, William L., on Co- 
lombia's commercial possi- 
bilities, 398-399. 

Sheep-raising, Rio Grande do 
Sul, 186; in Argentina, 191, 
216; in Patagonia, 224-225; 
in Uruguay, 235. 

Silla, Cordillera de la, 406. 

Silver, from Mt. Potosf, 265. 
See Mineral resources. 

Sinu River, 380. 

Slavery, reduction of Pe- 
ruvian Indians to, by the 
Spanish, 77 ; introduction 
of negro, 403. 

Socompa, Mt., 278. 

Solis, Juan Diaz de, 22, 113, 
236. 

Solis Theater, Montevideo, 
231. 

Sorata, Mt., 258. 

Souza, Martim Affonso da, 33. 

Spain, mistaken colonial pol- 
icy of, in South America, 
113-120; revolt of South 
American countries against, 
120-121. 

Spaniards, numbers of, in 
Buenos Aires, 203. 

Spanish Main, the, 402. 

Squier, E. G., quoted, 271. 

Steamships, German, at Bue- 
nos Aires, 200; on Parana 
River, 226. 

Sucr6, Antonio Jos6 de, 131, 
132, 259, 266. 

Sucr£, city of, 266-267. 

Sugar, beginnings of produc- 
tion of, in Brazil, 34. 

Sugar Loaf, peak of, bay of 
Rio de Janeiro, 162. 

Sun, worship of, by Peruvian 
Indians, 50, 57-58, 335-336, 
337. 

Surinam, 426. 



444 



INDEX 



Tabatinga, Brazilian port, 
138. 

Tacna, Province of, 287, 290. 

Talca, truce of, 124. 

Tapajos River, 146. 

Tarapaca, Province of, 287, 
290. 

Tehuelche Indians, 224. 

Temple of the Incas at Cuzco, 
52-53. 

Tensaquilla, village of, 385. 

Theater, the Amazonas, at 
Manaos, 145-146; the Muni- 
cipal, Rio de Janeiro, 166; 
at Sao Paulo, 180; the So- 
lis, in Montevideo, 231. 

Theaters, at Belem, 152; in 
Buenos Aires, 206, 207. 

Tiahuanaco, ruins of, 48, 272- 
273. 

Tierra del Fuego, 225, 285, 
311. 

Tin, wealth of Bolivia in, 265. 

Titicaca, Island of, 57, 336. 

Titicaca, Lake, 45, 57, 258, 
335-338. 

Tobacco from Province of 
Esmeraldas, Ecuador, 358. 

Tolima, volcano, Colombia, 
385, 391. 

Tonka beans, Colombia, 380. 

Toparca Capac, 69. 

Tordesillas, treaty of, 15. 

Toroni, Mt., 278. 

Torre Tagle, Marquis of, 129. 

Toscanelli, letters of, quoted, 
8-9. 

Trade, restrictions placed on 
South American, by Spain, 
118-120; of United States of 
Brazil, 135-136; of Argen- 
tina, 191-192. See also 
Commerce. 

Trans-Andean railway, 222, 
280. 

Trees, of Brazil, 142, 143; in 
Montevideo parks, 231-232; 



of southern Chile, 286-287, 

309-310; of Ecuador, 355- 

356, 363-364. 
Trinidad, Island of, 16, 415, 

419. 
Trombetas River, 146. 
Tronador, Mt., 284. 
Tucapel, Araucanian chief, 

103, 106. 
Tucuman, battle of, 1§3. 
Tucuman, city of, 195. 
Tumbez, Peru, 39, 41, 324. 
Tunguragua, Mt., 366. 
Tupungato, Mt., 281. 

Ucatali River, 322. 

United States, trade between 
Brazil and, 136; smallness 
of commerce of, with Ar- 
gentina, 201 ; fewness of 
people from, in Buenos 
Aires, 203; commerce be- 
tween Chile and, 277; trade 
of, with Colombia, 398; 
trade with Venezuela, 419. 

Universities in Argentina, 
198. 

University, San Francisco 
Xavier, Sucr6, 267; San 
Marcos, 330. 

Uruguay, 228 ff. ; life in Mon- 
tevideo, 229-234; nature of 
the country, 234-235; com- 
merce of, 235; favorable 
conditions of, for national 
prosperity, 236 ; turbulent 
political history of, 236- 
237 ; bellicose personality 
and present-day outlets for, 
237-238; political factions 
in, 238. 

Uruguay River, 32, 228, 234, 
235. 

Uspallata Pass, 222, 279-280. 

Valdivia, Pedro de, conquest 
of Chile undertaken by, 82, 



445 



INDEX 



97-107; put to death by 
Araucanians, 107. 
Valdivia, town of, 109. 
Valencia, city and lake of, 

406, 414. 
Valera, Father Bias, cited, 58. 
Valle, Marquis del, 31. 
Valparaiso, 101, 287, 296-299. 
Valverde, Friar Vincente de, 

64. 
Vargas Hospital, Caracas, 

413. 
Vega, Garcilaso de la, quoted, 

52-53, 58, 61, 335. 
Vela, Blasco Nunez, 87. 
Velasco, Juan de, 370. 
Venezuela, location and to- 
pography, 400-401 ; area, 
401-402; naming of, 402; 
coastwise approach to, 403- 
404; towns and cities, 405- 
413; earthquakes in, 413; 
the Orinoco delta and river, 
415-417; the llanos, 418; 
agricultural products, 418- 
419; commerce of, 419; 
government, 420-421 ; 
statesmen and rulers of, 
421-423. 
Vernon, Admiral, siege of 

Cartagena by, 393-394. 
Vespucci, Amerigo, voyages 
of, 18-19; the Mundus No- 
vus of, 20; the naming of 
the New World for, 20-21; 
later explorations by, 22. 
Vicerovalties of New Spain 

and Peru, 114-116. 
Victoria, city of, 154. 
Vilcapujio, battle of, 123. 
Villagran, Francisco de, 107- 

108. 
Villa Hayes, 240. 
Villegagnon, settlement at, 

168. 
Vina del Mar, 296, 299. 
Virgins, Cape, 27. 



Virgins of the Sun, 52, 57; 

palace of, at Cajamarca, 65. 
Volcanoes, of Chile, 278; of 

Colombia, 385; of Ecuador, 

365-372. 

Waldseemuixer map, 21. 

Washington, Col. Lawrence, 
394. 

Watling's Island, 12. 

"Westward Ho !" reminders 
of, 408. 

Wheat, production of, in Ar- 
gentina, 192; harvesting of, 
in Argentina, 216; produc- 
tion in Uruguay, 235. 

Wheelwright, William, 201. 

Whymper, Edward, ascent of 
Ecuadorian peaks by, 365, 
367; quoted on the crater 
of Cotopaxi, 368. 

Wine industry, Mendoza, 221. 

Women, Brazilian, 171-173; 
of Buenos Aires, 210; of 
Mendoza, 221 ; of Monte- 
video, 234; of Santiago, 303, 
304; of Lima, 328, 329. 

Wright, Marie Robinson, 
quoted, 187, 188, 299-300. 

Yavari River, 322. 

Yegros, General, 246, 247. 

Yerba mat4, production of, in 
Rio Grande do Sul, 185- 
186; in Argentina, 192; in 
Paraguay, 253-256; cultiva- 
tion of, 254-255; beneficial 
results from, 255-256. 

Ypiranga, building in Sao 
Paulo, 178. 

Yupanqui, Inca ruler, 45, 48. 

Zamora, State of, Venezuela, 

406. 
Zaruma, mines of, 356. 
Zenufana, region called, 91. 



446 












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